’One nation, one election’ sent to Joint Parliamentary Committee

Minutes before the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday, the House adopted a resolution recommending the two bills on holding simultaneous elections to a 39-member joint parliamentary committee of both Houses. The resolution, moved by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, was passed by a voice vote amid opposition protests over Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks related to Ambedkar, PTI reported.

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The two ‘one nation, one election’ (ONOE) bills, including one requiring an amendment in the Constitution, lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections and were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after a fiery debate.

The resolution also recommended that the Rajya Sabha communicate the names of its members to be appointed to the joint committee.

The bill, which was approved by the Cabinet last week, seeks to establish simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies across India.

Opposition members opposed the bill’s introduction. In the division, 269 members voted in favour of the bill’s introduction, while 196 voted against it.

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As reported by PTI, the government’s proposed list of Lok Sabha MPs now includes one member each from the Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI(M), and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), along with two additional members from the BJP and one more from the Samajwadi Party.

The agenda for the House on Friday included a motion from Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to refer two bills to a joint committee, comprising 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha, as reported by PTI.

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The new Lok Sabha MPs proposed for the committee include Baijayant Panda and Sanjay Jaiswal from the BJP, Chhotelal from the Samajwadi Party, Anil Desai from Shiv Sena (UBT), Shambhavi from the Lok Janshakti Party, and K Radhakrishnan from the CPI(M).

The committee will review the two “one nation, one election” (ONOE) bills, one of which seeks to amend the Constitution.

Former Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and P P Chaudhary, along with BJP’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are also among the Lok Sabha members proposed for the panel.

Of the Lok Sabha members, 17 are from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, including 12 from the BJP.

Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal tabled two important bills in the Lok Sabha today: the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024. These bills propose simultaneous elections for both the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated that when the One Nation, One Election Bill was presented to the cabinet for approval, Prime Minister Modi suggested it be referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for a detailed discussion.