New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government managed to introduce the two bills to implement ‘One Nation One Election’ in Lok Sabha Tuesday following a vote, with 269 of the 467 MPs present in the House favoring the introduction and 198 opposing it.  The vote was necessitated by non-BJP parties’ opposition to introduction of the legislation on the ground that it is “anti-federal” and tampers with the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.  

One of the two bills to amend the Constitution—The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment Bill), 2024—will require no less than two-thirds of members of that House of Parliament present and voting to vote in favour of it. 

The two bills will be the first step towards implementing one of BJP’s key poll promises, simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.

Opposition MPs demanded that the bills be sent to a joint parliamentary panel for further scrutiny, to which Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal have furnished assurances to that extent.

Though the two bills were introduced separately, Speaker Om Birla clarified that both bills were being clubbed for discussion.

However, if Tuesday’s voting numbers are any indication, ensuring the passage of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment Bill), 2024, in the Lok Sabha will not be a cakewalk for the NDA.

Of the 467 members present in the Lok Sabha and voting, 269 voted in favour of introduction of the bills while 198 opposed it. For two-third members to vote in favour, NDA will need 312 votes. The current strength of Lok Sabha is 542, but only 467 MPs were present in the House Tuesday.

If all 542 Lok Sabha MPs are present on the day the Constitution Amendment bill comes for passage, then NDA will need 362 (two-thirds of 542) votes in its favour. 

Proposing introduction of the bills, Meghwal said they aim to ease the electoral process, which will be synchronised. “There will be no tampering with the ‘Basic Structure’ of the Constitution … we are not tampering with the power of the states,” Meghwal submitted.

“It consulted various opposition parties before submitting its report,” he told the Lower House, referring to the high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind tasked with recommending ways to make the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal a reality.

Soon after Meghwal introduced the two bills, the Congress and other constituents of the INDIA bloc including the TMC, Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and IUML opposed it, along with other non-BJP parties including the AIMIM.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said the bills amount to an assault on the ‘Basic Structure’ and are beyond the legislative competence of the House.

Tewari asked how it was possible under our constitutional scheme that the tenure of state legislatures be made subject to the tenure of the national legislature. “That is completely an anti-thesis of the constitutional scheme,” Tewari said, adding that this excessive centralism, which is sought to be brought into existence by this bill, “absolutely militates against the constitutional scheme in its essence, in its entirety and its very object.”

Citing the ‘Basic Structure’ doctrine enunciated by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati case, the Congress MP from Chandigarh argued that introduction and consideration of the bill is beyond the legislative competence of the House, and called for the immediate withdrawal of the bills. 

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, too, argued that the bills attack the ‘Basic Structure’ by taking away the autonomy of the state legislative assemblies. “…We must remember that the state government and state legislative assembly are not subordinate to central government or to Parliament itself. This Parliament has the power to legislate law under the 7th Schedule list one and list three. Similarly, the state assembly has the power to legislate law under the Seventh Schedule list two and also list three … Therefore, by this process, the autonomy of the state legislative assembly is being taken away…”

Opposing the bills, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai said it is a direct attack on federalism and will undermine states as an entity.

DMK’s T.R. Baalu also called the bills “anti-federal”. He added, “As my leader M.K. Stalin has said, it is anti-federal … The electors have the right to elect the government for five years and the same cannot be curtailed with simultaneous elections…”

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

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