One Nation-One Election Bill: Four MPs from the Congress, including party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, may be included in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to be formed to consider the bill providing for simultaneous holding of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Both the bills providing for simultaneous holding of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday. The government had insisted that the bills would be referred to a joint committee for detailed review and comprehensive deliberations.
The Lok Sabha must first pass a motion to send the draft laws to the joint committee, which will then be constituted by the Speaker. At present, sources said that the Congress party can send the names of Priyanka Gandhi, Manish Tiwari and Sukhdev Bhagat and Rajya Sabha member Randeep Surjewala from Lok Sabha for JPC.
Trinamool Congress has suggested the names of its Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee and its Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale for the proposed joint committee of Parliament for the purpose of simultaneously deliberating on election-related bills.
Opposition opposed the bill in the House
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the ‘Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024’ and the related ‘Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ in the Lower House, providing for simultaneous holding of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the country. Which was strongly opposed by the opposition parties. The bill was introduced after division of votes in the House. 263 votes were cast in favor of introducing the bill, while 198 votes were cast against it. After this, Meghwal also introduced the ‘Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ after the consent of the House by voice vote.
