Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that election preparations continue throughout the year, and frequent elections hinder the nation's progress and development and wastes time and money.

He stated that due to the continuous electoral cycle sometimes decisions are taken to win votes. To address this, he advocated for simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, urging the need for a constitutional amendment to make this possible.

"Whether anything happens in our country or not, preparations for elections go on continuously all the year round for five years. These repeated elections are a hindrance to the progress and development of the country. Therefore, Lok Sabha and assembly elections should be held simultaneously by amending the Constitution," Chouhan said.

He was addressing students on the topic of ‘One Nation, One Election’ at Oriental Institute on Friday. He urged students to actively support this cause on social media, raising their voices in favour of simultaneous polls across the country.

"One nation, one election should become a mass campaign, a movement and students should lead it. A campaign should also be run on social media and a voice should be raised from this country that we are in favour of one nation, one election, we support this campaign," he said. Chouhan said that until 1967, elections in India were held simultaneously. Initially, elections were conducted using ballot papers, which were later replaced by stamped ballots and eventually, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

He also mentioned that earlier Union government started dissolving assemblies by misusing Article 356 of the Constitution when other political parties formed government in various states.

This marked the end of simultaneous elections. He recalled that the Election Commission had first proposed the idea of simultaneous elections in 1983, suggesting that the process should be streamlined so that polls for both Lok Sabha and state assemblies are held simultaneously.