'India's GDP will grow by 1.5% if simultaneous elections held'

Chennai: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said India's gross domestic product (GDP) will witness a rise of 1.5% if ‘one nation, one election' (ONOE) is implemented.

At a seminar on ONOE at SRM University in Chennai, Nirmala said, "If simultaneous polls are held, our GDP will see a rise by 4.5 lakh crore. Our GDP will witness an increase of 1.5%. Only if our economy is strong, people irrespective of their communities will grow. This is a black and white example to show people who are blindly opposing it."

Referring to the expenditure incurred for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Nirmala said, "It is estimated that the total expenditure came to around 1 lakh crore. If polls are held simultaneously, we can save 12,000 crore, which can then be spent for the welfare of people."

She further said that apart from financial resources, human resources are wasted in the case of frequent polls. "For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 10 lakh armed personnel were pitched in for poll duty apart from 25 lakh poll officers for 12 lakh polling booths. Their regular work gets affected due to frequent polls. Also, the model code of conduct (MCC) will be in place for at least three months in case of an election, and in that period, developmental work can't be undertaken," Nirmala said.

Citing the examples of Karnataka, Kerala, and northeastern states, the Union minister said, "Simultaneous elections will result in an increase in polling percentage. For instance, when simultaneous polls were held in Karnataka in 1999 and in Kerala in 1977, polling percentage saw an increase. Similarly, in northeastern states, the polling percentage saw a rise of 21% when elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously."

Recalling the previous stand of Congress and NCP, Nirmala said, "In 2015, when E M Sudarsana Nachiappan of Congress was the chairman of the parliament standing committee, he supported the implementation of simultaneous elections in a phased manner. Even NCP-SP president Sharad Pawar wrote a letter to Union food and consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi in 2019, saying ONOE was a good idea. Even former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi in his autobiography supported ONOE, but his son and chief minister M K Stalin's ideas differ from that of his father's."

The minister added that even some of the TN parties supported ONOE. "In the high-level meeting held for simultaneous polls, in which 47 parties participated, 32 of them, including AIADMK, PMK, and Tamil Manila Congress, supported it. Only 15 parties, including DMK, MDMK, VCK, AAP, SP, and CPM opposed it," she said.