Parliament on Friday constituted a 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to consider the bill providing for simultaneous holding of parliamentary and assembly elections in the country i.e. “one country, one election”. The committee will be headed by BJP MP and former Union Minister P.P. Chaudhary. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has confirmed this.
The formation of the committee was completed with the approval by voice vote of the proposal to nominate 12 members of the committee in the Rajya Sabha.
Discussion on the bill and formation of committee
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal proposed in the Lower House to send the ‘Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024’ and the related ‘Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ to the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which was approved by voice vote. Got approval.
- 27 more members from Lok Sabha
- 12 members from Rajya Sabha have been included in this committee.
The committee will have to submit its report by the first day of the last week of the upcoming budget session.
JPC members from Rajya Sabha
Members included in the committee from Rajya Sabha:
- BJP: Ghanshyam Tiwari, Bhuneshwar Kalita, K. Laxman, Kavita Patidar
- GO: Sanjay Jha
- Congress: Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik
- Trinamool Congress: Saket Gokhale
- DMK: P. Wilson
- You: Sanjay Singh
- BJD: Manas Ranjan Mangaraj
- YSRCP: V. Vijay Sai Reddy
JPC members from Lok Sabha
Members included in the committee from Lok Sabha:
- BJP: PP Choudhary, Bansuri Swaraj, Purushottam Rupala, Anurag Thakur, Vishnu Dayal Sharma, Sambit Patra, Baijayant Panda, Sanjay Jaiswal.
- Congress: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Tiwari, Sukhdev Bhagat
- SP: Dharmendra Yadav, Chhote Lal
- TMC: Kalyan Banerjee
- DMK: T. M. Selvaganapathy
- TDP: Harish Balayogi
- Shiv Sena (UBT): Anil Desai
- NCP (SP): Supriya Sule
- LJP (Ram Vilas): Shambhavi
- CPI(M): K. Radhakrishnan
- RLD: Chandan Chauhan
- Jana Sena Party: Balashouri Vallabhaneni
form of committee
In the 39-member JPC:
- 16 members of BJP
- 5 members of Congress
- 2-2 members from SP, TMC and DMK
- Other parties (TDP, Shiv Sena, AAP, BJD, YSRCP, RLD, CPI(M), NCP) have 1 member each.
P.P Choudhary: Chairman of JPC
P. P. Chaudhary is a BJP MP from Pali in Rajasthan and has reached the Lok Sabha for the third time. 71-year-old Chaudhary is a legal expert and has been the Minister of State for Law and Justice in the first term of the Modi government.
Division of votes on the bill and opposition’s opposition
After division of votes in the Lok Sabha, the ‘Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024’ was introduced with 263 votes in support and 198 votes against. After this, ‘Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ was also introduced.
Congress and other opposition parties opposed these bills alleging that they are an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution. He demanded to send the bill to JPC, which was approved.
responsibility of the committee
The JPC will have to thoroughly discuss these bills with the provision of “one country, one election” and present its report in Parliament. This committee will play an important role in creating a balance between the government and the opposition on this sensitive issue.
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