Meghalaya will be impacted if the ‘One Nation, One Election’ comes into effect in 2029.
Meghalaya which will have its next Assembly elections in 2028 will also have simultaneous elections for both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections again in 2029.
The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 18 has approved the ‘One Nation, One Election’ plan, aligning Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. A bill to this effect is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the upcoming winter session of Parliament. At least five articles of the Constitution will be amended to enable the holding of simultaneous polls in the country.
Meghalaya and nine other states that got new governments last year will hold elections again in 2028 and the new governments will be in power for about a year or less. Besides Meghalaya, these states are Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Only Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana bound for polls this year can have the same government for five years.
Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat will have governments that last two years or less as they will next go to polls in 2027. Similarly, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Kerala will have governments that will last three years as they are scheduled to go to polls in 2026.
As per the proposal by the Ram Nath Kovind committee, ‘One Nation, One Election’ will be implemented in two phases.
In the first phase, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be conducted simultaneously. In the second phase, local body elections (panchayat and municipalities) will be conducted within 100 days of the general elections. There will be a common electoral roll and common voting card for all elections.
