News18 Pulse: One Nation, One Election | What Are The Key Findings Of This Significant Survey? - News18

News18 Pulse: One Nation, One Election | What Are The Key Findings Of This Significant Survey? - News18

The proposal to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all states, popularly known as the One Nation, One Poll (ONOP) plan, enjoys strong support among the country’s electorate, according to a nationwide News18 survey. Around 80.1% respondents to the survey, titled News18 Pulse: One Nation, One Election, said they support ONOP.

Around 16% said they were not in favour of it, while 3.9% said they had no opinion on it. The support for ONOP, also called One Nation, One Election, was highest in central India, with 90.7% respondents saying they are in favour of it. Next came north India (87.3%) and east India (84%).

Support for simultaneous elections was relatively low in northeast India (73.9%) and west India (72.9%), and the least in south India (69.7%).

According to the survey, 81.2% respondents are of the opinion that simultaneous polls will reduce the financial burden on the country.

Over 80 per cent people surveyed believe that having fewer elections can ease daily life with lesser disruptions.

It has been observed that every time elections take place, rallies lead to traffic woes for locals, and schools and offices are shut for a couple of days for polling. However, with elections once every 5 years, a majority of people believe this will reduce disruptions to day-to-day life.

While 90 per cent people in north India believe One Nation One Election will make day-to-day life easy, at least 24.4 per cent in south India feel that may not be the case, as per the News18 survey. The ONOE Bill has been backed for making daily life easy by 87.4 per cent people in central India, 85.4 per cent in east India, 78.1 per cent from northeast India, 67.5 per cent in south India, and 72.6 per cent in west India.

Overall, only 13.2 per cent people say that ONOE will lead to fewer disruptions in day-to-day life while 6 per cent said they were not sure whether or not that may happen.

One of the questions was whether voters would face problems in differentiating between candidates and parties at national and state levels with simultaneous polls. According to a News18 Pulse survey, nearly 50 per cent respondents expressed confidence that there would be no confusion.

As per the survey, 49.4 per cent of the respondents feel that voters will not face problems in differentiating between candidates and parties at national and state levels, compared to 39.1 per cent feeling otherwise. More respondents in south (46 per cent) and west (46.6 per cent) think that voters will face problems in differentiating between candidates and parties at national and state levels.

Even among respondents who support the ONOE proposal, about a third, or 33.6 per cent of respondents feel that voters will face problems in differentiating between candidates and parties at national and state levels.

However, 55.9 per cent respondents in central India, 62 per cent in east, 52 per cent in north and 44.7 per cent in northeast say that confusion over local and national candidates will not prevail when ONOE comes into effect.

A total of 71.6% respondents think simultaneous elections will help align national and regional issues, leading to better policy decisions. Around 17.7% respondents disagree with the view, while 10.7% are not sure. Around 81.7% from the central parts of India, 75.5% from the east, 80.2% from the north, 60.6% from the north-east, 63% from the south and 63.8% from the west responded to the question in the affirmative.

Should India follow the American, Canadian, and German models for simultaneous polls to elect the federal government and state legislatures? Around 68.7% respondents to the survey responded in the affirmative. About 15% respondents disagreed while 11% said they weren’t sure and 5.4% didn’t respond to the question.

Of those in favour of following the Western model, 80.3% were from central India, while 75% were from the north. The least acceptance to the Western model of simultaneous elections was found in the south at 53.8%.

More than three-fourths of respondents—72.1%—believe holding simultaneous elections would improve voter turnout in India. The support was higher in the northern (81.8%), central (79.1%), and eastern (76.4%) regions, and slightly lower in the southern (64.2%), northeastern (62.8%), and western (60.8%) parts.

Around 69.9% respondents to the News18 survey on simultaneous polls said it would strengthen the country’s democracy. Close to 13.4% respondents said implementing the step would weaken democracy, while 16.7% said it would have no impact. Around 80.9% respondents from central India and 80.6% from north India said ONOP would strengthen India’s democracy, while only 54.5% respondents in west India agreed.

The survey was conducted from December 23-31, 2024, among 4,573 respondents across 29 states and union territories of India.

Around 66.1% respondents were based in urban areas, while 33.9% belonged to rural areas.

Around 73.7% of those surveyed and 26.3% were female, with the northeast registering a more sizeable sample of female respondents.

Nearly two-thirds of the survey sample identified as businesspersons or traders, land-owning farmers, white-collar workers, and homemakers.

The parliamentary panel constituted to scrutinise the two simultaneous election bills will hold its first meeting on Wednesday. The 39-member joint committee of Parliament is headed by BJP MP PP Chaudhary and includes members of all major parties, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the Congress, Sanjay Jha of the JD(U), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee.

The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were introduced in the Lok Sabha during the Winter Session and referred to the committee.

The Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, 2024, says there is an imperative need for holding simultaneous elections for various reasons, as polls have become expensive and time-consuming.

The bill proposes to insert a new article 82A—simultaneous elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and all Legislative Assemblies—and to amend Article 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), Article 172 (Duration of State Legislatures), and Article 327 (power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures).

The bill also provides that after its enactment, a notification is to be issued by the President on the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election, and that date of the notification will be called the appointed date. The tenure of the Lok Sabha will be five years from that appointed date.

The tenure of all state assemblies, constituted by elections to the legislative assemblies after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the House of the People, shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the Lok Sabha.

Swipe Left For Next Video

Opposition parties have raised concerns over the bills, while ruling NDA leaders say the burden on the exchequer will be lessened. Opposition MPs have questioned if the country is logistically ready to hold simultaneous elections, pointing out that recent polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand could not be held together with those in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.

During the consultation process on the issue, 32 political parties supported the idea while 15 did not, according to former president Ram Nath Kovind, who headed the high-level committee that studied the proposal.