First meeting of 'One Nation, One Election' committee on Sept 23, confirms ex-President Ram Nath Kovind

‘One Nation, One Election,’ committee will officially have its first meeting on 23 September, said former President of India Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar. The eight-member high-level committee, which will be meeting under the chairmanship of Kovind, has been formed to examine and make recommendations at the earliest on the the issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats.

VIDEO | "The first meeting (of 'One Nation, One Election' committee) will take place on September 23," says former President Ram Nath Kovind. pic.twitter.com/4GRXJ8n7MV

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 16, 2023

Who are members of One Nation, One Election committee? The panel will have Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Finance Commission chairman NK Singh as members. Senior advocate Harish Salve, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C Kashyap, and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari were named members of the committee. MoS Arjun Ram Meghwal will be attending the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while Legal Affairs Secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel. What will One Nation, One Election committee do? The committee will examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and any other laws and rules which would require amendments for the purpose of holding simultaneous elections. Apart from this, it will also examine and recommend, if the amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by the States. It will also analyse and recommend possible solutions to scenarios such as hung House, adoption of no-confidence motion, or defection or any such other event in case of simultaneous elections. The committee will hear and entertain all people, representations and communications which in its opinion can facilitate its work and enable it to finalise its recommendations. The committee has been constituted just months ahead of the assembly elections to five states and the Lok Sabha polls next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ on several occasions. Addressing a conference of presiding officers in November 2020, PM Modi had said: “One Nation, One Election is a necessity for India. There is an election every month in the country, hampering development. Why should so much public money be wasted on holding elections?” With inputs from agencies