New Delhi/Bhubaneswar. After two Lok Sabha MPs, a Rajy Sabha member from Odisha, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj, has found a place in the 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to review the Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, which aims to synchronize Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.
Mangaraj is a BJD MP from Odisha.
The other 11 MPs from the Upper House are Ghanshyam Tiwari, Bhubaneswar Kalita, K Laxman, Kavita Patidar, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, Saket Gokhale, P Wilson, Sanjay Singh and V Vijayasai Reddy.
Earlier in week, 27 members from Lok Sabha, including former Union Minister Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), newly-elected Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Wayanad), Bansuri Swaraj (New Delhi), C M Ramesh (Anakapalle), Anil Baluni (Garhwal), Bhartruhari Mahtab (Cuttack) and Sambit Patra (Puri), were nominated to the JPC.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday sent the two bills – Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024′ and ‘The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 – related to simultaneous elections to the JPC.
According to the notification issued on Wednesday, the JPC will make a report and submit to the House by the first day of the last week of the Budget Session.
The bills were introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal amid much din after a division with 269 members voting in favour and 196 opposing it. Following this, the bills were referred to a JPC for ‘wider consultation’.
While the Opposition criticised the proposal for ‘One Nation, One Election’, calling it “against federalism”, Meghwal stated the legislation will not interfere with the powers enjoyed by the states.
