The first meeting of the JPC on the ‘one nation, one election’ bills on Wednesday was marked by a flurry of questions from panel members, with opposition MPs calling the legislations an assault on constitutional norms and BJP and allies arguing that they served the nation’s broader interests.. The session saw law ministry officials outlining the benefits of holding simultaneous elections, including reduced expenditure and administrative load.
Opposition MPs suggest extending ONOE JPC’s term to a year
The Congress MP’s comments led to a counter from BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who interpreted her remarks as an implicit endorsement of EVMs, contrary to her party’s scepticism about the machines.
Opposition MPs also asked whether the financial estimates had been updated to reflect the use of EVMs, which were employed nationwide for the first time in 2004.
BJP MPs, including Sanjay Jaiswal, defended the bills by citing precedents from 1957 when state assemblies were dissolved to align elections with the national schedule, under the leadership of figures like President Rajendra Prasad.
MP V D Sharma emphasised the public support for simultaneous elections, referencing a high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which had consulted over 25,000 people, the majority of whom favoured the proposal. BJP members argued that the constant cycle of elections disrupted development and drained national resources.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde highlighted the practical issues in Maharashtra, where closely scheduled elections for various levels of govt stalled development activities due to the need for extensive election management. However, opposition voices, including those from Congress, DMK and Trinamool, reiterated their stance that the legislations undermined federalism and the democratic ethos, with one TMC MP stating that protecting democratic rights was more important than financial considerations. The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were introduced in Lok Sabha in the winter session and referred to the committee.
