Par panel on One Nation One Election interacts with presiding officers, leaders of UP

Lucknow, Jul 14 (PTI) On the second day of its study visit here on Tuesday, the Joint Committee of Parliament on One Nation One Election interacted with the presiding officers and the leaders of the opposition parties, an official statement issued here said. The Committee also interacted with Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and some cabinet ministers and had elaborate discussions about the proposed amendments, legislative process, constitutional principles such as federalism, powers being given to the Election Commission of India, plausible impacts on Centre-state relations and regional issues, it said. The Committee also met representatives of the BJP, SP, BSP, Congress, Rastriya Lok Dal (RLD), AAP, CPI(M) and Apna Dal (S). The representatives made their submissions before the Committee explaining the thought process of their political party. Amongst other things, the discussions covered issues relating to the desirability of the electoral reforms, the necessity of One Nation One Election and plausible effects of powers being bestowed upon the Election Commission on basic structure, federal structure and requisite safeguards within the one framework so that the legal as well as socio-political balance may be maintained, the statement said. The committee also met representatives of various trade organisations, including CII, ASOCHAM, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Dalit Chamber of Commerce and Aadarsh Vyapyar Mandal amongst others. They made the Committee aware of the impact on migrant labourers, the industry, the economy and various strata of society. The Committee sought some clarifications and asked all the chambers of commerce to come up with the studies to give empirical data so that it could arrive at logical conclusions. The 41-member Committee is examining the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 to implement the One Nation One Election framework. The Committee, chaired by BJP MP P P Chaudhary, has been conducting nationwide consultations to roll out simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies by 2029. PTI ABN KSS KSS