Simultaneous elections bringing good governance is an illusion

             Central government is mulling over conducting simultaneous elections to Loksabha and State Legislative Assembly. In the wake of strong pitch for simultaneous elections by prime minister and his colleagues, this article discusses the menace of such changes.

Regional party dominance will continue

         We have seen the foraying of regional parties in Loksabha and continuous formation of coalition governments in centre from 1989 onwards expect on this occasion. The state government has garnered an increase in interest and acceptance right after 1975 emergency and various surveys like that of centre for study of developing societies(CSDS) shows us these trends. CSDS shows a rise of interest in state government from 18.9 percent to 25.6 percent from 1971 to 1999. This is even higer now. If simultaneous elections are conducted the regional parties will have a greater dominance over the national parties as people receive benefits from welfare schemes of state government directly in most states like Tamilnadu, AP, Telangana, etc,. Dominance of regional parties in other states is inevitable.Except hindi speaking states almost all other states are dominated by regional parties. This trend cannot be reversed.

Digging it's own grave    

      There is a greater chance of increasing complexity of coalition politics at centre as cross-voting during simultaneous elections is negligible even in urban areas. The stability of central government will be in jeopardy and thus become a threat to governance. From where can this good governance come with unstable governments?  It may save money and resources for conducting elections but leads to uncertainty of existence of central government. Apart from this we will have technical problems like if central government loses majority should the state governments be dissolved and if a state fails to form a government or loses majority then who rules the state legitimately for the residual term.

Central Government pondering of simultaneous election is like cutting the bark of the tree on which it is sitting.

               As the nation is moving towards decentralization simultaneous election is more a threat to relevance of union government rather than federalism. As dominance of regional parties increases, decentralization speeds up and central government may remain as a puppet of state governments. This limits centre to a mere transactor rather than a transformator. Governance will be replaced by transactions with state governments. Bringing good governance will be a myth.

Save central government

       If any change have to be made simultaneous elections must be avoided completely. No election to state assembly must be simultaneous to Loksabha elections and Elections to state assemblies must not occur before or within nine months of Loksabha elections. State assemblies to which elections take place simultaneously with Loksabha must be rescheduled accordingly. If centre tries to dominate states it's nothing but digging it's own grave.