New Delhi, Dec 24: India’s Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) will convene on January 8, 2025, to deliberate on the controversial ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal, which seeks to hold simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The meeting, set to take place early next year, is expected to bring critical discussions on the potential changes to India’s electoral framework, as reported by ANI.
Congress leader Salman Khurshid acknowledged the complexity of the proposal, stating that conducting ‘One Nation, One Election’ is no easy task. Speaking to ANI, he emphasized that the JPC will thoroughly review all related issues before making recommendations. “It is not an easy task. When the parliamentary committee sits, all the issues will be placed before it and will be discussed,” Khurshid said.
The proposal has faced strong opposition from several political parties, particularly from the Left. Key parties, including the Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI (Marxist), CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party, and All India Forward Bloc, have expressed concern that the initiative undermines India’s federal structure. They argue that it could diminish the rights of state legislatures and concentrate power at the centre.
In a joint statement, the Left parties described the proposed constitutional amendments as “a direct assault on the federal structure and the rights of State legislatures and the people who elect them. It is a recipe for centralization and truncating the will of the people by arbitrary reduction of the five-year term of legislatures.”
Two bills aimed at implementing simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were introduced in the Lok Sabha and have now been referred to the JPC for further deliberation. The bills propose a shift to a unified election schedule across the nation.
The 31-member JPC will include 21 members from the Lok Sabha, among them prominent figures like Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Manish Tewari, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Supriya Sule, Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Kalyan Banerjee, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members PP Chaudhary, Bansuri Swaraj, and Anurag Singh Thakur. Additionally, ten members from the Rajya Sabha will participate in the committee.
Opposition members have voiced concerns that the proposed changes could disproportionately benefit the ruling BJP, giving the party undue influence over electoral outcomes in states. They argue that the shift would weaken regional parties and erode the autonomy of state governments.
