ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION: CONSTITUTIONAL FEASIBILITY, FEDERAL CHALLENGES, AND THE PATH TO ELECTORAL SYNCHRONISATION IN INDIA

AUTHOR – VISHWARAJ BAHADUR SINGH, BA LLB (HONS.), SCHOOL OF LAW, CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE LAVASA

BEST CITATION – VISHWARAJ BAHADUR SINGH, ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION: CONSTITUTIONAL FEASIBILITY, FEDERAL CHALLENGES, AND THE PATH TO ELECTORAL SYNCHRONISATION IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (8) OF 2026, PG. 832-841, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344. DOI – https://doi.org/10.65393/IJLRV6I890

ABSTRACT

India’s electoral framework has long been characterised by a perpetually fragmented electoral calendar that imposes substantial fiscal, administrative, and governance costs upon the nation’s federal democratic structure. The proposal for One Nation One Election (ONOE) — the simultaneous conduct of elections to the Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies — represents the most ambitious electoral reform proposed since the synchronised elections of 1952–1967. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, introduced on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, has renewed legislative urgency around the question of whether simultaneous elections are constitutionally permissible and institutionally viable within India’s parliamentary federal democracy. This paper undertakes a doctrinal legal analysis of ONOE’s constitutional foundations, examines the rationale for and against electoral synchronisation, draws upon comparative international experiences from South Africa, Sweden, Belgium, Indonesia, Germany, and the Philippines, and critically evaluates the constitutional, federal, administrative, and democratic challenges to implementation. The paper concludes that while ONOE carries genuine administrative and fiscal merit, its implementation requires a carefully calibrated framework of constitutional amendments, state ratification, institutional reform, and political consensus — and that a phased, federally sensitive transition model represents the only constitutionally defensible path forward.

Keywords: One Nation One Election; simultaneous elections; basic structure doctrine; federalism; Election Commission of India; constitutional amendment; Article 368; Model Code of Conduct.