BJP to send notices to MPs absent during 'One Nation One Election' Bill tabling
New Delhi/IBNS: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will send notices to its MPs who were absent in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday during the introduction of the government's flagship "One Nation One Election Bill", media reports said.
More than 20 MPs from the saffron camp were absent during the division of the House, said reports.
The party had earlier sent a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha members, mandating their presence in the House.
The absence of the MPs was not a roadblock to the two bills meant to amend the Constitution and permit simultaneous parliamentary and state elections.
However, it helped Congress attack the Centre, claiming that it was evident that the government did not have enough support on the issue.
The bills were passed by simple majority, as required by the rulebook; 269 MPs voted in favour and 198 opposed it.
However, Congress pointed out that a Constitution amendment bill needs a two-thirds majority to get passed.
"Undoubtedly the government has larger numbers on its side... but to pass it (bills to amend the Constitution) you need a 2/3 majority that they very clearly don't have," Congress's Shashi Tharoor told reporters.
"It is obvious (then) that they should not persist too long with this," he added.
Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal tabled the constitutional amendment bills for holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament on Tuesday amid opposition from a large section of the opposition leaders.
The opposition sought a division of votes after the law minister 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 Lok Sabha.
The bills will now be referred to a joint committee of the two Houses, Hindustan Times reported.
The constitutional amendment bill is aimed at synchronising Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly elections.
Although a high-level committee, headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind, had recommended in its 18,626-page report that municipal and panchayat elections be held parallelly national and state elections in phases, the Cabinet has opted to exclude, "as of now," the framework for local body elections.
Several INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress and AAP, have opposed the decision, arguing that it could disproportionately benefit the ruling party.
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