For a nation of over 1.4 billion people and the world’s third-largest economy in the making, being in a perpetual election mode is not ideal. The ‘One Nation, One Election’ bill, which began its parliamentary journey earlier this week in the Lok Sabha, aims to end this endless loop of elections we find ourselves in as a nation.

The government, referring the bill to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), has ushered in an opportunity for an open conversation around the subject. With the next Lok Sabha polls scheduled in 2029, more than four years from now, the Modi government has the license to be liberal with their timeline. Therefore, to confuse the referring of the bill to the JPC as some diversionary tactic would be incorrect.

The first reaction from the Congress and other regional parties in the opposition is grounded in fictitious fabrication. To say that ‘One Nation, One Election’ is against the spirit of federalism is akin to saying that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, won the elections that were not federal in nature.

The opposition MPs, especially the ones from the Congress, who are using the bill to label the Prime Minister as a dictator, must introspect, for their hastily crafted argument will boomerang strongly against their party’s history.

From 1951-52 to 1967, India witnessed simultaneous elections across four Lok Sabha polls. The disruption came in 1968 and 1969, as some state assemblies were prematurely dissolved. Put simply, ‘One Nation, One Election’ is not a new beginning; rather, it is a pursuit of the original idea that was executed in the dawn of our young Republic.

However, beyond history, the simultaneous elections in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim, alongside the Lok Sabha polls, are a testament to the thriving federalism in India. The state of Maharashtra has witnessed six simultaneous elections, while Haryana has witnessed five, and Jharkhand, one of the youngest states in India, has seen three simultaneous elections.

Another myth, that of the tenure of the state assemblies, must be addressed. Some MPs in the Lok Sabha were quick to point out that the bill is against the basic structure of the Constitution, for it reduces the term of the state assembly to less than five years. That is, in order to synchronize the state and national elections, some assemblies will witness tenures that will be shorter than five years. They are not even remotely correct.

Merely a cursory reading of Articles 83 and 172 can dispel this myth. Our Constitutional framers had carefully drafted the articles on the duration of the terms of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, unless dissolved early, to be of five years and no longer. Thus, the Constitution does have room for discussion on this aspect as well.

The Ram Nath Kovind Committee Report talks about the insertion of an additional article 82A through a constitutional amendment to alter the duration of the state assemblies in order to synchronize their term with the Lok Sabha. A series of constitutional amendments, dealing with the duration of the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, duration of the assemblies in three Union Territories (Puducherry, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir), elections in urban and rural wards, and a single electoral roll will have to pass the numbers test in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The constitutional reasoning is sound on ‘One Nation, One Election’, and the only stress test will be on the floor of the Houses for the government.

One of the underrated, yet critical, proposals of the bill is the single electoral roll. The committee proposed that the simultaneous elections must allow for the synchronization of operations of the Election Commission and several state election commissions for the preparation of a single electoral roll, with the introduction of EPIC or Elector’s Photo Identity Card. This will not only replace the conventional voter card but also eliminate redundancy in voting, thus creating a self-correction mechanism.

For long, polity has superseded policy in India. Our governance, policymaking, and infrastructural push are directly and indirectly influenced by the elections across India. In the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, critical time is lost, both of the government officials and the central forces that are deployed. Within India’s five-year electoral cycle, there does not exist a window of even eighteen months where governance can go on unperturbed.

Going back to simultaneous elections will eliminate policy paralysis and consequently offer more stability in governance, which will have a progressive impact on investments, infrastructure, and overall growth. Voter fatigue, that is now prevalent amongst several urban pockets, can also be addressed via simultaneous elections.

The challenge in simultaneous elections is not for the voters or the Election Commissions, but the participating parties, for they will have to evolve their campaigning style. While the voters will have the luxury of choosing from the best of both worlds, parties running a governance-based agenda will stand to gain.

However, parties like the Congress that thrive on contradictory dynamics at the state and national level may find it troublesome to adapt. The selective convenience with which Rahul Gandhi operates the alliances of the Congress may no longer be acceptable to its junior partners in the state.

Taking a cue from the BJD, which swept Odisha in 2014 and 2019 state elections, while the BJP swept the Lok Sabha, regional parties must be careful in evaluating the idea of simultaneous elections.

Elections must be about voting for a roadmap, one that dictates the country’s economy for the short term while having a direct impact on its long-term growth. The current alignment, though, appears to be a roadmap with multiple pauses on the way. Elections are integral to the democracy we are, but for the larger interests of the voters and of the elected governments, it is time we start considering a model that leaves more room for policy and considerably less for politicking. Early days in this journey, but perhaps, this is an idea whose time has come.

Tushar Gupta (@tushar15_) is a political commentator.