New Delhi, Jan 21: The joint parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing the two bills for simultaneous elections is set to convene for its second meeting on January 31, as announced on the Lok Sabha website.
The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were presented in the Lok Sabha during the recent Winter Session and subsequently referred to this committee.
The upcoming meeting will focus on discussing procedures and modalities for reviewing the amendment bills, according to the Lok Sabha site.
The committee’s first meeting occurred on January 8, where members were briefed by representatives from the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department).
During the initial session, there was a lively debate, with opposition members criticizing the proposal as a threat to the Constitution and federalism, while BJP representatives defended it as aligning with public sentiment.
Each member of Parliament received a trolley containing over 18,000 pages, which included both Hindi and English volumes of the Ram Nath Kovind committee report, as well as 21 volumes of annexes, along with a digital copy.
Led by BJP MP PP Chaudhary, this 39-member joint committee includes representatives from all major political parties, such as Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, and Trinamool Congress’s Kalyan Banerjee and Saket Gokhale.
The government expanded the committee from 31 to 39 members in response to an increasing number of political parties wanting to participate in the assessment of the two proposed laws regarding simultaneous elections.
Notable members also include former Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, and Manish Tewari, along with lawmakers such as Anil Baluni, Bansuri Swaraj, and Sambit Patra.
The committee comprises 27 members from Lok Sabha and 12 from Rajya Sabha. (Agencies)
