One Nation, One Election: The first meeting of the 39-member parliamentary panel on 'One Nation, One Election' will be held on January 8, 2025, said sources on Monday (December 23). This will mark the beginning of nationwide discussions on this key electoral reform initiative by the BJP-led NDA government.
According to the Parliamentary sources, the first meeting of the Joint Committee on bills for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, chaired by BJP member P P Chaudhary, is likely to be an introductory one with officials briefing the panel on the two bills to implement a long-cherished election promise of the BJP.
39-member parliamentary panel on 'One Nation, One Election'
The panel has 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Member of Parliament PP Chaudhary has been appointed as the chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)
The members from the Lok Sabha are: CM Ramesh, Bansuri Swaraj, Parshottam Rupala, Anurag Singh Thakur, Vishnu Dayal Ram, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Sambit Patra, Anil Baluni, Vishnu Datt Sharma, Baijayant Panda, Sanjay Jaiswal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Tewari, Sukhdeo Bhagat, Dharmendra Yadav, Chhotelal, Kalyan Banerjee, TM Selvaganapathy, G M Harish Balayogi, Anil Yeshwant Desai, Supriya Sule, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Shambhavi Choudhary, K Radhakrishnan, Chandan Chauhan and Balashowry Vallabhaneni.
The members of Rajya Sabha are: Ghanshyam Tiwari, Bhubaneswar Kalita, K Laxman, Kavita Patidar, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, Saket Gokhale, P Wilson, Sanjay Singh, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj and V Vijayasai Reddy.
The Constitutional (129th Amendment) Bill regarding the simultaneous elections was introduced in the Lok Sabha after the first-ever e-voting in the Parliament last week. The motion of introduction was passed with a majority. A total of 269 votes were polled in favour of the motion while 198 were polled against the motion. The bill was referred to the joint committee of Parliament on Friday, the last day of the Winter Session.
(With PTI inputs)
Also Read: One Nation, One Election: What's the road ahead for bill to become an act? EXPLAINED
