Andalib Akhter / New Delhi
Government today introced the Bills related to One Nation One Election in the Lok Sabha amid strong objection by the opposition parties. Opposition sought division of votes as Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved the motion to introduce the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Ninth Amendment) Bill 2024 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the House. 269 members have voted in favour of the introduction of the bill and 198 against it.
Opposition parties including Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI (M) and others opposed the introduction of the Bills terming it an attack on basic structure of the constitution. They demanded to send the Bills to the Joint Parliamentary Committee for further scrutiny.
Mr Meghwal rejected the opposition parties’ allegations saying that these bills are not against basic structure of the Constitution. He proposed to send these Bills to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
Referring to the statement made by the first Law Minister Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Mr Meghwal said, no one can change the federal structure of the constitution. The Minister lauded the Ram Nath Kovind led high level Committee constituted for exploring the idea of One Nation, One Election in the country. He said the committee held extensive deliberations with stakeholders, including political parties and experts.
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, when One Nation, One Election Bills came up in the Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Narendra opined that this should be referred to the JPC.
Manish Tiwari of Congress said, these bills violate basic structure of the constitution. He said, India is a Union of States and these Bills need to be withdrawn. Echoing the same view, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said that these bills will take away the autonomy of the State Legislative Assemblies. T R Balu of DMK termed the bills as anti-federal and demanded to send these bills to JPC.