On Tuesday, the Union government is all set to table the “One Nation, One Election” bills in Lok Sabha. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is expected to introduce the significant two bills in the Lok Sabha, according to the media reports.
The two bills include the ONOP Bill, officially called The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill. Following this, Meghwal is expected to request Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to refer it to a Joint Committee of Parliament for wider consultations. In this process, a joint panel will be formed on a pro-rata basis, depending on the strength of the MPs from political parties. However, BJP being the largest party is expected to to hold the chairmanship and multiple member positions.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will announce the committee’s composition by Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, several opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin have opposed the idea of simultaneous polls in the country, calling the bill as “anti-democratic.”‘One Nation, One Election’ refers to the simultaneous conduct of Lok Sabha, Assembly, and local body (urban or rural) elections in the same year, if not a same time.
This practice was followed from independence time which later discontinued in 1967, covering four polls starting with the first general election in 1951-52. The premature dissolution of certain state governments in 1968-69 and the early termination of the Lok Sabha in 1970 disrupted the cycle of simultaneous elections. Currently, only seven states hold elections with the Lok Sabha polls.
Among them, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim participated in simultaneous voting during the April-June Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. States like Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand conduct their polls in the latter half of a general election year.
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