"One Country One Election" committee will be held on September 23

The first official meeting of the 'One Country One Election' committee will be held on September 23 under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind.

The government had earlier notified an eight-member high-level committee to examine and make recommendations on holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, Legislative Assemblies, municipalities and panchayats at the earliest.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh are members of the committee.

The panel, which will start functioning soon and make recommendations at the earliest, will have former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari as members.

The meetings of the committee will be attended by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal as a special invitee and Legal Affairs Secretary Nitan Chandra will be the secretary of the panel. The committee will examine and recommend any other laws and regulations that require amendments to the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act to hold simultaneous elections.

Three committees have submitted reports since 2015 on an election issue per country. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice in 2015, NITI Aayog in 2017 and Law Commission in 2018. All these suggest that the idea of a single election should be considered.

At present, elections are held at the Center and in each state when the respective governments complete their term. According to this, assembly elections should be held in at least five states on an average in a year. Also local elections in various states should be held every five years. The government is planning to do all this together.