In the first two decades since Independence, simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies across the country meant that there were fewer political compulsions during the intervening five-year period, requiring the time, attention and electoral considerations of the elected class of leaders, across a vast spectrum — both in the government and the Opposition. However, since the late Sixties, intervening Assembly elections, and the more frequent parliamentary elections in the Nineties in particular, meant that the entire government machinery came almost to a stand-still or faced election-induced reversal. This has impeded the nation's development, growth and even the law and order situation, it is being often argued. One of the various ways being mooted off and on is the consideration of constitutionally mandating simultaneous polls to both the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies every five years and finding constitutionally-mandated alternatives for the interim, if there is cause for altering this course. The speaker Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy will address these queries and also moot answers for the active consideration of the political class across the country in general, and at the national-level in particular.
T. S. Krishnamurthy is the former Chief Election Commissioner of India. A civil servant with vast experience, Krishnamurthy has touched upon the topic occasionally, particularly since demitting office and has also referred to the same in his writings.
