The Modi government has introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to damage the Constitution and the federal structure within it. Two Bills were introduced – The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and The Union Territories Laws Amendment Bill – which seek to ensure simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all the legislatures of states and union territories. The Bill amends three clauses and introduces a new clause in the Constitution.
The purpose of these amendments is to facilitate simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies. For this, the basic principle provided in the Constitution of a five-year term for the Lok Sabha and state legislatures is done away with.  One of the amendments states that if the Lok Sabha is dissolved before the end of its full term, elections will be held for the next Lok Sabha only for the period of the unexpired term. This means that if the Lok Sabha is dissolved after three years of its term, the next election will only be for a Lok Sabha that will function for two years.
This truncation of the tenure of a state assembly has serious implications for federalism and the rights of elected state legislators. The federal structure, which is manifested in the Union of States, will get weakened and diluted as the basic right of a five-year term for the assembly gets mutilated. It also opens the way for manipulation by the central government and the ruling party at the centre.
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For instance, if a state assembly is dissolved after four years of its term due to the fall of the state government, a mid-term election for just the remaining one-year term of the assembly does not make sense. Such a situation will open the way for either horse-trading to prevent the fall of the government or it will be an invitation to impose President’s rule in the state.
One of the major arguments advanced by the proponents of the `One Nation, One Election’ system is that it will cut wasteful expenditure incurred due to the multiplicity of elections held at varying times. However, the proposed changes to maintain the alignment of the Parliament and assembly elections opens the way for unnecessary elections in short spans of time.
By the Constitutional amendments proposed, there can be an election for a state assembly with a five-year term; then if there is a fall of the state government, a mid-term election for the remainder of the term will be held; following which there will be another election at the end of the five-year term. This means there will be three elections in the space of five years. If such a situation occurs at the Lok Sabha level, there will be three national elections in the space of five years. Such an absurd situation will only multiply the expenditure on polls many-fold.
There is also a clause introduced, which empowers the Election Commission to decide to delay elections in any state if it thinks the situation warrants it. The EC recommendation will be acted upon by the president. This is a dangerous provision which can be used to subvert the basic right of a state in the federal structure.
