Priyanka Gandhi, Anurag Thakur & more: Who is on the ‘One Nation, One Election’ panel?

The ‘One Nation, One Election’ plan has finally reached the Parliament.

On Tuesday, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal tabled two bills — the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Amendment Bill — to align the general and Assembly elections.  What followed were hours of intense debates and a division vote.

As anticipated, the first obstacle was easily overcome, with 269 MPs in favour and 198 voting against it.

A joint parliamentary committee will now engage in “wider consultation” on the bills.

A maximum of 31 Members of Parliament (MPs) would make up the JPC.

Here’s all we know about it.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee

There are 21 Lok Sabha members and 10 Rajya Sabha members on the panel.

Within 24 hours, Speaker Om Birla will decide on the joint committee’s members.

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The deadline is crucial because the winter session of Parliament concludes on Friday. If a committee is formed and assigned tasks, the bill expires and needs to be reintroduced in the next session.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal proposes bills should be sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. https://t.co/rERBLlzvuA

— ANI (@ANI) December 17, 2024

There has been no announcement of the mechanism used to fill the committee.

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As the only party with a majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP will undoubtedly hold both the majority and the chair of the committee.

The committee is supposed to have 90 days from the time it is formed to submit a report. If necessary, this time may be extended.

Members of the Committee

A combination of leaders from different political parties comprise the 21 Lok Sabha MPs who have been designated as JPC members.

Prominent names include Anurag Thakur, a former Union Minister, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a recently elected Congress MP. Vadra is in her maiden term as an MP after winning the Wayanad constituency. She recently made headlines for her unique protest style.

Others on the committee include PP Chaudhary, CM Ramesh, Bansuri Swaraj, Parshottambhai Rupala, Vishnu Dayal Ram, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Sambit Patra, Anil Baluni, Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sukhdeo Bhagat, Dharmendra Yadav, Kalyan Banerjee, TM Selvaganapathi, Supriya Sule, TDP’s GM Harsh Balayogi, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Chandan Chauhan, and Balashowry Vallabhaneni.

Media reports say that P Wilson, Saket Gokhale, Sanjay Jha, and Manish Tiwari JD(U) will also likely be on the committee.

Their task

It is anticipated that the JPC will engage in “wider discussions” with a range of stakeholders, including non-committee MPs as well as legal and constitutional experts, including former judges and attorneys.

Consultations may also be held with former Election Commission members.

If the constitutional amendment bills and the “one nation, one election” law are approved by Parliament and subsequently adopted by the states, the EC, the nation’s highest polling body, will be tasked with the highly challenging duty of holding parallel Lok Sabha and state elections.

According to NDTV, the BJP is interested in talking with all of the Assembly Speakers.

The public will probably be asked for feedback as well.

The JPC will examine the full text of both bills to amend the Constitution, clause by clause, after these inputs have been obtained, according to the NDTV report, before submitting a final report.

About One Nation, One Election

The proposed bill of One Nation, One Election will enable all Indians to cast votes in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously, or in the same year, to choose their national and state representatives.

In 2024, only four states held Lok Sabha elections in addition to the April–June Lok Sabha elections: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha.

In October and November, voters cast votes in three more states: Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir.

The remaining states have non-synchronised five-year cycles; for instance, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana were among those that voted at various times last year.

Delhi and Bihar will do so in 2025 and Tamil Nadu and Bengal in 2026.

In order for it to succeed, the Constitution must be amended and approved by the governments of every state and union territory as well as, perhaps, significant political parties.

These include Articles 83 (parliamentary term), 85 (presidential dissolution of the Lok Sabha), 172 (duration of state legislatures), 174 (dissolution of state legislatures), and 356 (imposition of President’s Rule).

The idea will be subject to criticism if it violates the nation’s federal structure if such revisions are not passed, according to legal experts.

The opposition has objected to the bills, with the INDIA bloc dubbing the move “dictatorial”. The government has defended the proposed legislation, with Meghwal saying that the bills did not attack the “basic structure doctrine, as claimed by the opposition”.

With inputs from agencies