The Government has put forward a proposal to include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Bansuri Swaraj, and 18 other Lok Sabha members in a Joint Committee tasked with examining bills aimed at facilitating simultaneous elections. This committee is expected to submit its report during the upcoming budget session.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will propose that the bills intended to amend the Constitution of India, the Government of Union Territories Act of 1963, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act of 1991, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 be referred to a Joint Committee comprised of 21 members from the Lok Sabha. Specifically, the bills in question are the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, as outlined in the revised list of business for the Lok Sabha.
Alongside Priyanka Gandhi, Shinde, and Swaraj, other Lok Sabha members included are P.P. Chaudhary, C.M. Ramesh, Parshottambhai Rupala, Anurag Singh Thakur, Vishnu Dayal Ram, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Sambit Patra, Anil Baluni, Vishnu Datt Sharma, Manish Tewari, Sukhdeo Bhagat, Dharmendra Yadav, Kalyan Banerjee, T.M. Selvaganapathi, G.M. Harish Balayogi, Supriya Sule, Chandan Chauhan, and Balashowry Vallabhaneni. The committee will also consist of ten members from the Rajya Sabha.
The quorum for the committee will be one-third of its total membership. According to the proposed agenda, the committee must present its report to the House by the first day of the last week of the following session.
On Tuesday, the Government took a significant step towards fulfilling the ruling BJP’s longstanding commitment to conducting simultaneous elections for both Parliament and state assemblies. This was initiated by introducing a constitutional amendment bill and a regular bill in the Lok Sabha. The opposition remarked that the division results for adopting the motion to introduce the bills—269 members in favor and 198 against—indicated the government’s inability to secure a requisite two-thirds majority required to amend the Constitution.
The first of the two bills, the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, seeks to introduce a new Article 82A, which pertains to simultaneous elections for the House of the People and all Legislative Assemblies. It also proposes to amend Articles 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), 172 (Duration of State Legislatures), and 327 (Parliament’s authority to legislate on elections to legislatures).
The bill states that “the tenure of the House of the People shall last five years from the appointed date. The tenure of all Legislative Assemblies, formed by elections held after the appointed date and before the expiration of the full term of the House of the People, will cease on the conclusion of the full term of the House of the People.”
The second bill, known as the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Act, is a regular bill that does not require endorsement from half the states, unlike the constitutional amendment. It aims to make necessary adjustments in the Government of Union Territories Act, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 to synchronize the timing of elections for the House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies.
