BJP Wants Polls in 11 States Held With 2019 Lok Sabha Election, Say Sources

The Centre is keen to hold assembly elections in 11 states at the same time as the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, according to sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party, who said no constitutional amendment would be required.

The plan

According to the sources, the party was examining whether some state elections could be pushed back by a few months and others brought forward so that all of them coincide with the Lok Sabha election. The reports came hours after BJP president Amit Shah wrote to the Law Commission on Monday supporting “one nation, one poll”, so that the country is not campaigning all year round. His letter followed, by two days, an Election Commission suggestion that elections be bunched into one round each year instead of being held simultaneously.

Elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand are due towards the end of next year and Bihar in 2020. Party sources said that because the JD(U) supports simultaneous polls, Bihar should not be hard to bring on board. They said polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, due later this year, could be combined with those in Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram and held alongside the general election. An all-party meeting on the issue could be called soon.

The case and the debate

Some in the BJP believe holding as many state polls as possible with the Lok Sabha election would help the party, given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated support for the idea. Modi has called for a wide debate on it and said it would save money. Party leaders said clubbing polls in BJP-ruled states would also help counter anti-incumbency.

The NITI Aayog last year proposed synchronised Lok Sabha and assembly polls in two phases from 2024. A Law Commission draft paper has recommended changes to the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

The Congress called the idea “misplaced”, while the Trinamool Congress and the CPI were lukewarm, describing it as against the federal structure. The proposal was welcomed by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

What happened next

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh held their own assembly elections in 2018. Rajasthan voted on 7 December 2018; the Congress formed governments in all three states, with Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel as chief ministers.

Originally published on 14 August 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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