New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday broached the subject of conducting simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the fourth meeting of the governing council of the policy think tank NITI Aayog. Addressing 23 chief ministers, one Lieutenant Governor and several Union ministers who are members of the council, the prime minister urged for a wider debate in the matter, Hindustan Times reported.“The Prime Minister called for widespread debate and consultations on simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas, keeping in view various aspects such as the resulting financial savings and consequent better utilisation of resources,” an official release for the meeting said. Rajiv Kumar, vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, quoted the Prime Minister’s observation that the country remains in “perpetual election mode,” suggesting the creation of one uniform voter list for all elections at the meeting, an NDTV report said.He said even the exercise of preparing the electoral rolls for the three-tier elections – municipal, state and country – consumes considerable time and money and is an elaborate exercise. The NITI Aayog had last year suggested synchronised, two-phase Lok Sabha and assembly polls from 2024 so as to ensure minimum ‘campaign-mode’ disruption to governance.Earlier in January, President Ram Nath Kovind had suggested the idea of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Kovind’s remarks were in sync with Modi’s comments, wherein he had advocated simultaneous polls during a meeting of NDA allies.The Election Commission (EC) and the Law Commission of India too are studying the viability of simultaneous polls.In April, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat had remarked that simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were a possibility if necessary amendments were made to the constitution and a sufficient number of electronic voting machines were made available. The EC had also come up with the alternative of ‘one year one election’ in the case of simultaneous elections not working out.The Law Commission of India too in April had recommended holding of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, possibly in 2019. It had released a draft paper in this regard and had suggested amending the constitution to realise this objective. The commission is presently in the process of speaking to stakeholders, including experts and political parties, before producing a final report.