New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Two Parliamentarians from Odisha–Bhartruhari Mahtab (Cuttack) and Sambit Patra (Puri)– are among the 31 members of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to review the Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, which aims to synchronize Lok Sabha and state assembly elections
The committee includes 21 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members, whose names will be announced on Thursday.
The list of 21 MPs from the Lok Sabha also features former Union Minister Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), and newly-elected Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Wayanad). The other members from the BJP are Bansuri Swaraj (New Delhi), C M Ramesh (Anakapalle and Anil Baluni (Garhwal).
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 Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024′ along with ‘The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ was introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday 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’.
The timeline for implementing the bill suggests that the ‘appointed date’ will follow the next Lok Sabha elections in 2029, with simultaneous elections scheduled to begin in 2034. From this point, the Lok Sabha’s tenure will be fixed at five years, and state Assemblies elected thereafter will have their terms end concurrently with the Lok Sabha’s term. If the Lok Sabha or any state Assembly is dissolved early, the newly elected body will serve only the remaining duration of the original term.
The Opposition, however, have criticised the proposal for ‘One Nation, One Election’, calling it “against federalism”. They have also raised concerns about its implications on the democratic framework.
