Top officials brief panel chief Kovind

NEW DELHI: Top officials of the Union Law Ministry on Sunday held a preparatory briefing for former president Ram Nath Kovind who heads the high-level committee to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies (as per the one nation, one election plan).

The government had on Saturday notified the eight-member committee. People aware of the development said, Law Secretary Niten Chandra, Legislative Secretary Reeta Vasishta and others met Kovind Sunday afternoon to understand how he would like to go about the agenda before the committee.

While Chandra is also the secretary to the high-level committee, Vasistha’s department deals with the issue of elections, the Representation of the People Act and related rules. Responding to a question on why the government issued a ‘resolution’ (‘sankalp’ in Hindi) to announce the names of the members of the high-level committee, an official explained that the ministry was following precedents.

The Indrajit Gupta Committee on state funding of elections was constituted through a resolution. The law commission is also reconstituted every three years by a resolution adopted by the Union Cabinet.

According to the resolution issued Saturday, elections to the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies were mostly held simultaneously from 1951-52 to 1967 after which this cycle got broken and now, elections are held almost every year and within a year too at different times, which result in massive expenditure by the government and other stakeholders.

Asynchronous elections also lead to diversion of security forces and other electoral officers from their primary duties for significantly prolonged periods, it said. The resolution said in the “national interest” it is “desirable” to have simultaneous elections in the country.

Frequent polls, it said, disrupt developmental work on account of prolonged application of the Model Code of Conduct. “Now, therefore, in view of the above and that in the national interest it is desirable to have simultaneous elections in the country, the Government of India hereby constitutes a high-level committee to examine the issue of simultaneous elections and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections in the country,” the resolution said.