My personal assessment and perception of One Nation, One Election is a necessity for the people of India. To be completely fair and transparent, it needs to be a one-day polling exercise with counting after that, by the respective Presiding Officer and Polling Officers in the presence of Polling Agents, after the polling stations are closed. The results of the polling station should be instantly declared to the people by the Presiding Officer. The Returning Officer may announce the result the next day after collecting all the result sheets. This will save time and remove suspicions. Re-polling can go on if the winning margin needs to be determined, but should not be the roadblock in declaring the results of the majority of polling stations.

For security, ECI may co-ordinate with the ward committees/village Council/Panchayati Raj concerned, to conduct a free and fair election.

Most of the democratic nations are growing ahead of India because they do not waste time on elections. They do not talk about hate. They work together. They talk about positive solutions to issues while they conserve their ethnic values. In India, elections are a war of words, with less decency and gentleness. This causes uneasiness to work together after elections. On many occasions, these loose talks draw the attention of ECI and Judicial Courts to intervene. Every year, half of the year is wasted in preparing and fighting endless elections. Therefore, out of the five years, 2 and a half years are spent on fighting elections. They do not have time to hear the issues and resolve the problems.

One Election will free politicians and the people for five years to work a complete five years for the people. India is in need of faster growth to compete with the progressing world economy. We lack nothing. We only need time to devote on development. Research, analysis, planning, design and development are the subjects we need to concentrate on. The time and resources saved from One Election can be invested on these development aspects.

India has huge resources and a great workforce. It is second to none in educational advancement. By putting them together on the production line, India can become the most comfortable nation in the World.

I wish the bill be passed.

(The writer is former Finance Minister, Nagaland)