According to the Lok Sabha agenda, the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, which is being called the “One Nation, One Election” Bill, will be introduced in the Lok Sabha today by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal. Meghwal will then request Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to refer the Bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament for wider deliberations.
New Delhi, Dec 16: A Constitutional Amendment Bill to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be introduced in the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday. The Bill is likely to be referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses.
According to the Lok Sabha agenda, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will introduce the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, which is being called the “One Nation, One Election” Bill. After introducing the Bill, Meghwal will request the Speaker to refer it to a Joint Committee of Parliament for wider deliberations.
Along with this, the minister will also introduce the “Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024”, which aims to make the elections of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, and Delhi NCT uniform.
The joint committee will be formed under proportional representation based on the number of parties. Being the largest party, BJP will get the chairmanship of the committee and will also have many members, an official said on Monday.
The high-level committee constituted under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind, in which Home Minister Amit Shah was a member, had recommended holding Lok Sabha, state assembly and local body elections simultaneously in a phased manner. Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to be present in the Lok Sabha at the time of the introduction of the bill.
Last week, the Union Cabinet decided to hold Lok Sabha and state assembly elections simultaneously, but the decision on local body elections was deferred for the time being. Meghwal may argue in the lower house that the bill requires extensive discussion among legislators and the public, so it should be sent to the joint committee.
The Speaker will seek names of members from the parties on the same day for the proposed committee. If the parties do not submit their names on time, they may lose the opportunity to join the committee as per the rules. The composition of the committee will be announced by the evening of the day the bill is introduced. Initially, the tenure of the committee will be 90 days, which can be extended later.
The Union Cabinet has approved two bills to conduct simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections. During the consultation process on “One Nation, One Election“, Kovind said that 32 parties supported it, while 15 parties were against it.
Elections were held simultaneously in India between 1951 and 1967. Since 1983, many reports and studies have discussed this concept, which calls for re-implementing the old system of holding simultaneous elections.
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