Who will join the ‘One Nation One Election’ JPC?

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has proposed the names of its Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee and his Rajya Sabha counterpart Saket Gokhale for the proposed joint committee of Parliament to be constituted to examine the bills on simultaneous elections.

The two bills that lay down the mechanism for holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections together were introduced in the Lower House on Tuesday, 17 December.

The government had promised that the bills would be referred to a joint committee for detailed examination and wider consultation, at prime minister Narendra Modi's instance, according to home minister Amit Shah.

The Lok Sabha has to first formally adopt a resolution to refer the draft laws to the joint panel, however, before the committee can be constituted by the Speaker.

The panel is likely to have 31 members — 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

For the BJP's part, the names of seasoned MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Nishikant Dubey have been mooted, in addition to Anurag Thakur and P.P. Chaudhary being considered as probable choices.

Meanwhile, sources claim the Congress is thinking of sending up new MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Manish Tewari. However, there is also talk of Sukhdeo Bhagat and Randeep Surjewala having been considered to represent the Congress.

Shrikant Shinde is likely to speak for BJP ally Shiv Sena. For the JD(U), it is expected to be Sanjay Jha. The DMK is expected to send T.M. Selvaganapathi and P. Wilson.

The saffron party will be in the majority on the panel, given their numerical superiority in Parliament as well.

The two 'One Nation One Election' (ONOE) bills, including one requiring an amendment in the Constitution, lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections. They were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after a fiery debate.

Opposition parties dubbed the draft laws — the Constitution amendment bill and the ordinary bill — as an attack on the federal structure of the nation, a charge rejected by the government.

Speaking to reporters on the Parliament premises, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had termed the bills "anti-constitutional".

"It is against the federalism of our nation. We are opposing the bill," she had said.

The BJP and its allies — the TDP, JD(U) and Shiv Sena — have stoutly defended the bills, saying frequent elections are an obstruction to development programmes and simultaneous polls will cut down on election expenditure.

With PTI inputs