Development will be unhindered for 5 years with ONOE in place: Mahajan

The senior BJP leader said that this bill will not come into force immediately after being passed in Parliament and steps will be taken gradually for its implementation, said Sumitra Mahajan

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday said that if parliamentary and state assembly elections are held simultaneously, then developmental works can happen without any hindrance for five years.  Mahajan said this while advocating for the bill having provision of holding these elections simultaneously. Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections in the country were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery 90-minute debate on Tuesday with the opposition terming the move as "dictatorial".

Talking to reporters, Mahajan said, "If this bill becomes a law and comes into force, it will be a good thing because development work will be done without any hindrance for five years. All the governments of the country will be able to move forward with a concrete programme of development." "This bill has a long way to go, but it is a good thing that discussions have started on it," she said.

The senior BJP leader said that this bill will not come into force immediately after being passed in Parliament and steps will be taken gradually for its implementation, Mahajan said.  Meanwhile, as many as 92 Lok Sabha members on Tuesday used paper slips to cast their votes at the introduction of a bill relating to simultaneous polls, sources said.

For the first time, an electronic voting system was used for voting on the introduction of 129 Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha after proceedings shifted to the new Parliament House last year.

Of the 461 members voting, 369 could cast their votes without error. But 92 had to use "correction slips". As many as 263 members voted in favour of the introduction of the bill and 198 against it.

Being a first for the MPs, 369 of them cast their votes through the vote recording machine. The remaining 92 votes were cast through slips of which 43 were in favour and 49 were against the motion.