The term of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the Bills seeking to introduce simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies was extended once again on Wednesday (March 18, 2026).

The Lok Sabha extended the tenure of the panel, headed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party MP P.P. Chaudhary, till the last week of the Monsoon Session. The term of the panel had been extended earlier in the Winter Session.

Mr. Chaudhary moved the motion seeking extension of the tenure of the 39-member multi-party committee, and it was adopted by a voice vote.

Parliament Budget Session highlights on March 18, 2026

The simultaneous polls Bills -- The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, were introduced on December 17, 2024 in the Lok Sabha and sent for Parliamentary scrutiny. The panel has so far held 17 meetings from January 8 last year.

Former Chief Justices B.R. Gavai, Sanjiv Khanna, D.Y. Chandrachud, U.U. Lalit, and J.S. Khehar; senior lawyer-MPs Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi; senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and M. Veerappa Moily; former IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath; and Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal, among others, have appeared before the panel.

Even as the panel got an extension, the EAC-PM released a working paper titled “Estimating Reduction in Polling Personnel Deployment Under Simultaneous Elections” by Mr. Sanyal and EAC-PM Joint Director Satvik Dev, who argued that “One Nation, One Election” (ONOE) was estimated to reduce deployment of polling personnel by 28%.

The working paper also argued that simultaneous polls could save around 1.4 crore personnel-days of polling officials over a five-year election cycle, taking into account that two days each were required for their training and deployment. “Since most polling personnel are teachers, and most polling stations are located in schools, a reduction of this scale in teaching days lost due to elections could have a significant impact on learning outcomes,” they said. Citing an Election Commission estimate, they said nine polling personnel -- four for the Assembly and five for the Lok Sabha -- were required for conducting separate polls, but it will reduce to six if the polls were conducted simultaneously. Though this was a 33% reduction, the working paper said the actual reduction could be 28% due to premature dissolutions.