'One Nation, One Election': Parliamentary Panel On Simultaneous Polls Holds First Meeting

The parliamentary committee, constituted to review the proposed legislation on simultaneous elections, held its first meeting on Wednesday (8 January).

In the meeting, officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice briefed the panel members on the provisions of the proposed laws, PTI reported citing sources.

Led by BJP MP P P Chaudhary, the 39-member parliamentary joint committee includes representatives from major political parties, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Congress, Sanjay Jha from JD(U), Shrikant Shinde from Shiv Sena, Sanjay Singh from AAP, and Kalyan Banerjee from the Trinamool Congress.

PP Chaudhary, who chairs the committee, is a former Minister of State for law.

The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, tabled in the Lok Sabha during the recent Winter Session, have been referred to this committee for detailed examination.

The committee's size was expanded from 31 to 39 members after several political parties requested inclusion in the deliberations on the two proposed bills concerning simultaneous elections.

Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala and Manish Tewari and several other lawmakers, including Anil Baluni, Bansuri Swaraj and Sambit Patra, are also members of the committee.

The joint parliamentary committee comprises 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha.

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