Congress MPs Priyanka Gandhi and Manish Tewari are expected to be part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) tasked with examining the One Nation One Election bills, sources told India Today on Wednesday. These bills were tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Gandhi, serving her first term as an MP after winning the Wayanad seat, has gained attention for her distinctive style of protests.
Other likely members of the panel include JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, TDP’s Harish Balayogi, DMK’s P Wilson and Selva Gagapathy, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, and Trinamool Congress’s Kalyan Banerjee and Saket Gokhale.
With the winter session of Parliament set to conclude on Friday, the 31-member panel must be constituted within the next three days. The committee, which will review the proposed amendments and consult stakeholders, has 90 days to complete its task, though it may seek an extension. The ruling BJP, being the largest party in the Lok Sabha, is expected to chair the panel.
On Tuesday, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Law (Amendment) Bill, 2024, aimed at enabling simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, were introduced amidst opposition protests. The bills were admitted in the lower House with 269 votes in favor and 198 against.