Simultaneous polls: Parliamentary panel holds first meeting

The parliamentary panel constituted to scrutinise the two bills on simultaneous elections held its first meeting on Wednesday.

Officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice are briefing the panel members on the provisions of the proposed laws, sources said.

Headed by BJP MP PP Chaudhary, the 39-member joint committee of Parliament comprises members from all major parties, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Congress, Sanjay Jha from JD(U), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, and Kalyan Banerjee from Trinamool Congress.

Chaudhary is a former minister of state for law.

The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were introduced in the Lok Sabha during the recent Winter Session and referred to the committee.

The government decided to increase the committee’s strength from 31 to 39, as more political parties expressed their desire to be part of the exercise to examine the two draft legislations on simultaneous elections.

Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala and Manish Tewari and several other lawmakers, including Anil Baluni, Bansuri Swaraj and Sambit Patra, are also members of the committee.

The panel has 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha.