Decks were cleared for setting up a mega 39-member parliamentary panel to examine the two bills proposing simultaneous elections with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adopting resolutions in this regard.
The government decided to increase the Committee's strength from 31 to 39 as more political parties expressed the desire to be part of the exercise to examine the two draft legislations that seek to fulfill the BJP's long-cherished promise of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
BJP leader and Lok Sabha member Bhratruhari Mahtab is tipped to be the chairman of the Joint Committee on the 'One Nation One Election' (ONOE) bills with former union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, P P Chaudhary, Manish Tewari and several first term lawmakers, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Bansuri Swaraj and Sambit Patra, as members.
The Joint Committee to examine the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill will have 37 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 members from the Rajya Sabha.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved the resolutions in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha separately amid protests by the opposition on certain parts of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks on B R Ambedkar.
The two 'one nation, one election' (ONOE) bills, including one requiring an amendment in the Constitution, lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections and were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after a fiery debate.
"The government agreed that the matter is very important and it relates to the reformation of the election process of our country, so we agreed to include most of the prominent political parties," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters here.
He said there was no limit on the size of the Joint Committee of Parliament and pointed out that one parliamentary panel examining centre-state relations had 51 members.
"The resolutions have been passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha today and the Speaker will issue the formal order of constitution of the Joint Parliamentary Committee," Rijiju said.
Among the 39 members of the Committee, 16 are from the BJP, five from the Congress, two each from SP, TMC and DMK, and one each from the Shiv Sena, TDP, JD(U), RLD, LJSP(RV), JSP, Shiv Sena-UBT, NCP-SP, CPI(M), AAP, BJD and YSRCP.
The NDA has 22 members and 10 are from the opposition INDIA bloc. The BJD and the YSRCP are not members of the ruling or the opposition coalition. The BJD is yet to spell out its stand on simultaneous polls, while the YSRCP has backed the move.
As per the resolution moved by Meghwal, the Committee has been asked to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the first day of the last week of the next session.
However, considering the importance of the measure, the Committee could get extension in tenure as required.
