UPSC Mains 2017 GS Paper 2 Q3: model answer
‘Simultaneous election to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies will limit the amount of time and money spent in electioneering but it will reduce the government’s accountability to the people.’ Discuss.
What the question wants
Weigh the savings in time and money from simultaneous elections against the risk to the government's accountability.
How to structure it
Discuss: two sides named in the quote.
- Savings
- Accountability risk
- Where it stands now
- Balance
How to think it through
The quote gives both sides; your job is to measure them. Money is easy to show. Accountability is subtler: an election every year keeps governments alert, but also keeps them in campaign mode. Bring the 2024 Kovind report and the Bill now with a JPC.
Model answer
India held simultaneous polls until 1967; early dissolutions broke the cycle. The Kovind Committee (2024) recommended restoring it, and the 129th Amendment Bill, 2024 is with a Joint Parliamentary Committee, still unreported in October 2026.
Savings
- Spending: the 2024 Lok Sabha election is estimated to have cost over ₹1 lakh crore.
- Repeated Model Code periods freeze new schemes and transfers.
- Teachers and police are diverted repeatedly.
- Less year-round polarising rhetoric.
Risk to accountability
- Voters judge governments more often when polls are staggered; a five-year gap weakens feedback.
- National issues may swamp State issues; an IDFC Institute study (2015) found a 77% chance that voters back the same party at both levels when polls coincide.
- If a government falls, a mid-term election for only the remaining term weakens the link between voters and mandate.
- Federal concern: State assembly terms tied to the Lok Sabha.
Balance
Accountability does not come only from elections; Parliament, courts, the press and local polls continue. A sensible design would keep local body polls separate.
The case for savings is strong; the accountability worry is real but can be reduced with safeguards.
Draw: A see-saw: 'time and money saved' on one side, 'accountability' on the other, with safeguards as the pivot.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
1967, Law Commission 1999 and 2018, Kovind Committee 2024, 129th Amendment Bill, Article 82A, JPC, Model Code, accountability.
Where most answers lose marks
- Saying 'one nation one election' is already law. It is a Bill under JPC study.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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