Must read on Simultaneous Elections

The RSS-BJP combine that sets the agenda for the governance of India has floated the idea of holding "simultaneous elections" for the Lok Sabha and 29 states and seven union territories because it will "save money and time" and the elected parties will be able to devote their energy and time for the primary task of governance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in March 2016, initiated this idea and the Government of India's Niti Ayog also circulated the paper on this issue. Now, on October 5, 2017, the Election Commission of India stated that it (EC) would be ready to hold assembly and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously after September, 2018.

If this proposal is accepted, the elections for the eight state assemblies which are due to be held in 2018 will be postponed. The BJP will make every effort to push this idea. However, the move will definitely be opposed by Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party (Marxist) and some other region-based parties even as the allies of the BJP and some regionalists such as the DMK and Telugu Desam will support the proposal.

LS, state polls delinked in 1971
When it was decided in 1971 to "delink" the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, the justification given for the decision was that the Lok Sabha elections should be contested on national and all-India issues and if assembly elections are held along with those for the Lok Sabha, the voters would likely be influenced while voting for either their MPs or MLAs.

This practice of separate elections for the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies because of different circumstances was followed in the March 1977 Lok Sabha elections. In that election an alliance of five groups — the Congress (O), Lok Dal/Janata Party, the socialists, Jan Sangh and Jagjivan Ram's Congress for Democracy — defeated Indira Gandhi's Congress on the platform of excesses committed by the Emergency regime of that party.

The Morarji government along with its Home Minister Charan Singh, after assuming power in 1977, asked the then President to "dismiss" the nine state assemblies where the Congress governments were in power because the people of India had defeated the "guilty" Congress at the Centre and these nine state governments were equally "guilty" and should be kicked out. Separate assembly elections were held in 1978 because of these special circumstances. This is only one part of the story. Another electoral practice fact is that from 1952 to 1967, simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections were held. It is from 1971 onwards that a "delinking" between Lok Sabha and state assembly elections took place. And for the three decades of the 1970s, 1980, 1990, the scheduled calendar for the holding of elections had become quite "unpredictable".

The Congress dominated the political system because it had constructed an all-inclusive platform of castes, regions and communities. However, the gradual decline of the Congress led to the walking out of many social groups from the 'umbrella party' in search of separate identities of their own in politics.

Rise of regional parties
It is only one part of the story that Indira Gandhi's Congress was punished in 1977-78 for her undemocratic, authoritarian regime. The other part of the reality is that a new class of peasantry, especially the "other backward caste middle peasants", was feeling neglected in the Congress, which was perceived as a pro-industry and upper caste dominated party.

The middle class peasantry which had emerged as an important social force in agrarian India was asking for 'minimum support price' for its products. The peasants felt that the Congress as it was constituted could not resolve the problem of "unequal terms of trade" and a party or parties representing the interests of middle class peasants and other backward castes was needed. This led to the emergence of parties of the peasant castes of Jats and Yadavs and others in different regions of India. Charan Singh, Devi Lal, Sikh Jats and Akali leaders emerged on the political scene.

Caste-based politics
A salient feature of caste-based politics is that caste loyalties are local and co-terminus with regional boundaries. The Jats of Haryana or Punjab or Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh have separate identities, irrespective of all of them being 'Jats'. Hence, there are separate parties in every region or state, irrespective of the common Jat caste identity. Similarly, the Yadavs of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have separate parties because caste identifies itself with its local and state boundaries. This is the explanation for the birth of numerous regional parties and the phenomenon of 'regionalism' that emerged strongly in politics in the 1970s. It also led to influential regional leaders, who had occupied important spaces in the Congress party up to the early 1970s, deserting the party and forming separate political parties of their own. The political and social map of India was changing rapidly and multiplicity of identity-based parties gained power in limited regions and for forming of any government at the centre, localities of multiple parties and groups had to be brought on a common platform.

Multiplicity of parties a reality
A multiplicity of parties is a reality and it cannot be wished away because separate identity-based parties have become a reality of Indian politics. The BJP's electoral success in 2014 and many states does not eliminate the possibility that the central government may be ruled by one party or multiple party coalitions and different parties may be power in some states of India. This reality of India cannot be wished away.

Further, it is unfair to the voters of non-BJP government ruled states that their elected governments be given the marching-out orders because the BJP wishes to establish its hegemony in the whole of India. The BJP's track record of dealing with non-BJP state governments, beginning with 2014, does not inspire confidence among the opposition parties about its bona fides: in spite of the Bommai case judgment, the Modi government dismissed the Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Manipur; now, it has launched an anti-communist and anti-Mamata movement in Kerala and West Bengal. In this atmosphere where a serious trust deficit exists between the BJP-led central government and non-BJP state governments, the proposal of simultaneous central and assembly elections should be thrown in the waste paper basket. An India of great diversity will have different parties in power in different states and such a reality should not be disturbed by an artificial technical electoral system. more