New Delhi: At the first meeting of the joint parliamentary committee on the One Nation, One Election bills Wednesday , several opposition MPs, including Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, questioned the government’s claim that simultaneous polls woud reduce expenditure, ThePrint has learnt.
The MPs asked if any estimate of savings was made following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when EVMs were used for the first time in all 543 parliamentary seats and are believed to have brought down the poll cost.
According to sources, at the meeting, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi asked “how will it (simultaneous polls) be cost-effective and how many EVMs would be needed” and urged the central government to provide data on the same. She also termed the bills, introduced in the Lok Sabha last month, unconstitutional and an infringement of democratic structure.
The sources said that Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik also opposed the proposal as being against the basic structure of the Constitution.
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Speaking to ThePrint, a functionary of the Samajwadi Party said their MP Dharmendra Yadav, too, termed the idea as going against the spirit of the Constitution and alleged that the government was conspiring to eliminate regional parties.
Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee asked whether reducing expenses or protecting the democratic rights of people was more important, according to party sources.
It is learnt that Banerjee also demanded that the committee be given a tenure of at least one year for scrutinising the bills. Banerjee further sought to know the number of EVMs that would be required to conduct simultaneous polls.
Another opposition MP is learnt to have said that the very fact that the government is seeking to amend Article 327 of the Constitution casts doubt on the Centre’s power when it comes to elections to state legislatures.
The same MP also questioned the government’s argument that simultaneous polls would be cost-effective, asking why the Centre was keen on “eroding the democratic rights of states just to save money”.
“Also, do you not boast that you have become the world’s fifth-largest economy?” the MP asked.
V. Vijayasai Reddy of YSR Congress—which had earlier supported the simultaneous polls concept in its submission to the Kovind committee that made recommendations on the idea—also raised a number of questions over the bills.
According to PTI, he demanded that ballot papers must replace EVMs, which he said are “vulnerable to manipulation”.
Reddy also claimed that simultaneous elections would marginalise regional parties, dilute the diversity of representations and local issues, undermine the need for elected representatives to engage regularly with voters and turn polls into a contest between two or three national parties.
JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, sources said, spoke about incidents of booth capturing in Bihar during the use of ballot papers to refute the suggestion to bring them back. He also said that his party was in favour of simultaneous polls.
According to sources in the BJP, the party’s Khajuraho MP, V.D. Sharma, said the Kovind committee had consulted over 25,000 members of the public and “an overwhelming majority supporting the idea, we should keep this in mind”.
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A blue bag for all
During Wednesday’s meeting, a presentation running into thousands of pages was given by the law ministry. Later, all members of the committee were given hard copies of it in a blue bag, that included one volume of the Kovind committee report in both Hindi and English, and 21 volumes of annexure, besides a soft copy. These bags gained everyone’s attention during the meeting. Later, many MPs posted about it on social media.
Talking to the media after the meeting, JPC chairperson and BJP leader P.P. Chaudhary said the view of every stakeholder had been taken at the meeting and that the government wanted every party to give its view on the bills.
The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were introduced in the winter session of Parliament and referred to the joint parliamentary committee. The government moved to increase the committee’s strength to 39 members from 31 as more political parties expressed their desire to be part of the exercise to examine the draft laws on simultaneous elections.
With inputs from PTI & Sourav Roy Barman
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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