The 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) held its first meeting on the Bills related to ‘One Nation, One Election’ here on Wednesday where all the members expressed their views.

The panel is mandated to review The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth) Amendment Bill, 2024 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which aim to align elections at the national and state levels.

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After the meeting, BJP MP P P Chaudhary, who is the Chairperson of the JPC, said in a post on X, “Chaired the first meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on ‘One Nation, One Election’ bills in Delhi and took the views of all the respected members of the committee.”

He further said that at the beginning of the meeting, Law Ministry officials gave a detailed presentation on the provisions of the Bills.

The JPC comprises 39 members, with 27 from Lok Sabha and 12 from Rajya Sabha. Among the members of the JPC are Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress), Anurag Thakur and Anil Baluni (BJP), and other Opposition leaders including Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), and Dharmendra Yadav (Samajwadi Party).

Ahead of the first JPC meeting, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut raised strong objections to the One Nation, One Election Bills, warning that it could pave the way for a consolidated political system under a single party and leader.

Talking to a news agency, Raut said, “One Nation One Election Bills will head to ‘One Party, One Election’ and ‘One Leader. One Election’. So, all of us, including the INDIA alliance, have opposed the Bills.”

Before the first meeting, Chaudhary had expressed confidence that a consensus will be built among the members of the Parliament who are part of the JPC. He said the efforts of the JPC would be to reach a consensus and scrutinise the Bills in an “unbiased” manner. He highlighted that the parliamentary panel would hear from every stakeholder in this matter.

“Our efforts will be to listen to people from every field, be it from political parties, civil societies, or judiciary. We want to take everyone’s input. We will examine the Bills introduced by the government in an unbiased manner and with an open mind. Our effort will be to reach a consensus since the members who are part of the committee are eminent (personalities). I have faith that we will work for the nation’s interest and reach a consensus,” Chaudhary told the news agency.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth) Amendment Bill, 2024 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 will give effect to the mechanism of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state/Union territory assemblies under the vision “One Nation, One Election” were introduced in the Lok Sabha, on December 17 and got referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on December 20.

The first Bill is on the simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies while the second is on aligning the elections for assemblies in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry.