Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to be on One Nation, One Election Bill House panel: Reports

Congress Member of Parliament Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely among party's list of nominees to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to further study the 'one nation, one election' Constitution Amendment Bill that was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

Party MP Manish Tewari is also in the list of nominees, reports said.

The two bills approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet on Thursday include The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024. Amid opposition by opposition, the bills, after being introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal, were sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further discussions.

The Congress, the single largest opposition party in Parliament, has also named Randeep Surjewala and Sukhdeo Bhagat Singh to the committee, according to a report in NDTV. The Trinamool has named Saket Gokhale and Kalyan Banerjee for the task.

The bills that pave the way for unified elections across the nation have been on the agenda of the ruling BJP for quite some time now.

Once passed in the Parliament, the Lok Sabha, the Assembly, and the local body (urban or rural) elections will be held in the same year, if not at the same time.

The first step is to hold Lok Sabha and Assembly polls together. Local body elections will be held within 100 days, the high-level panel led by former president Ram Nath Kovind recommended it its report on the simultaneous polls.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 proposes to amend three articles of the Constitution and insert a new one, Article 82A. One of the concerns raised by the opposition is that the bill gives excessive powers to Election Commission of India (ECI).