What Is The Common Electoral Roll?
The Law and Justice Minister told the Rajya Sabha that the Centre was not planning on amending the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to enable a common electoral roll and simultaneous elections to all electoral bodies in the country.
- Under the Common Electoral Roll, only one voter list will be used for Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and other elections.
Types of Electoral Rolls in India Currently:
- Some state laws allow the SEC (State Election Commission) to borrow and use the Election Commission of India’s voter’s rolls for the local body elections.
- In others, the state commission uses the EC’s voters list as the basis for the preparation and revision of rolls for municipality and panchayat elections.
- Few states have their own electoral rolls and do not adopt EC’s roll for local body polls like those of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- The distinction stems from the fact that the supervision and conduct of elections in our country are entrusted with two constitutional authorities — the Election Commission (EC) of India and the State Election Commissions (SECs).
- Election Commission (EC) of India: It was set up in 1950, the EC is charged with the responsibility of conducting polls to:
- the offices of the President and Vice-President of India,
- to Parliament, the state assemblies and the legislative councils.
- State Election Commissions (SECs): The SECs, on the other hand, supervise municipal and panchayat elections.
- They are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with the EC.
