BJP has been demanding ‘One Nation, One Election’ since 1984.
New Delhi: Moving ahead with its ‘one country, one election’ plan, the government on Wednesday accepted the recommendations of a high-level committee to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies in a phased manner after an exercise to build a nationwide consensus. The government said many political parties have already agreed on the issue. It said the issue is receiving widespread support from the people of the country and even those parties which are against it till now may feel pressure to change their stand. Recently there has been a lot of noise on this issue, but do you know that the BJP has been raising this issue for the last 40 years?
BJP has been demanding ‘One Nation, One Election’ since 1984
The demand for ‘One Nation, One Election’ may have been repeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last few years, but it has been on the party’s agenda since 1984. Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been constantly talking about the benefits of ‘One Nation, One Election’. Let us tell you that the party contested the Lok Sabha elections on an all-India level for the first time in 1984, and in its manifesto, it had demanded simultaneous elections across the country along with electronic voting machines. The party said that all these steps are very important for electoral reforms and a healthy democracy.
BJP had presented an 11-point blueprint for electoral reforms
In the 1984 elections, four years after its formation, the BJP fielded 224 candidates. The BJP manifesto pledged to curb four ‘evils’ that threatened the ‘freedom and fairness of elections’ – money power, political power, media power and muscle power, and presented an 11-point blueprint for electoral reform.
Extend the right to vote to all persons above 18 years of age Introduce identity cards for voters Use electronic voting machines, and amend the law as necessary Examine the feasibility of introducing a list system of elections Extend the right of postal ballot to Indian citizens living abroad Hold simultaneous state and central elections every five years Make the Election Commission a multi-member body, strengthen its independence by recovering expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India and providing it with a free, minimum infrastructure Extend the jurisdiction of the Election Commission to local body elections and ensure that local body elections are held regularly Introduce public financing of elections as in Germany, Japan and most other democratic countries Publicly audit the accounts of parties The code of conduct framed by the Election Commission to prevent abuse of government power by the ruling party should be legislated; violation of the code of conduct will be treated as corrupt practice under the law.
Most of these promises made by the BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee were later adopted into the electoral system. However, in 1984, the Congress won a record 414 seats while the BJP got only 2 seats.
From 1989 to 2019, BJP kept demanding electoral reforms
Let us tell you that after 1984, BJP kept demanding different electoral reforms in 1989 and subsequent elections. In 1989, the party demanded compulsory voting and a ban on donations by companies, while in 1991 and 1996 it changed its stand on corporate funding. In the 1998 and 1999 elections, the party talked about the Electoral Reform Bill and a fixed term of 5 years, while in 2004 and 2009 it reiterated the promises of 1984. In 2014, the party demanded to exclude criminals from elections and re-evaluate the limit of election expenses. In 2019, the party demanded to conduct all elections together and have a single voter list.
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