Panel on ONOE Bills expanded to 39 members for wider representation

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The government has moved to increase the strength of the joint committee of Parliament that will scrutinise the two bills proposing simultaneous elections from 31 MPs to 39, giving representation to more parties.

The list of Lok Sabha MPs proposed by the government now includes one member each from the Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI(M) and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), besides two more members of the BJP and one more of the Samajwadi party.

The list of business for the House for Friday includes a motion from Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to refer the two bills to a joint committee, including 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha.

The new Lok Sabha MPs proposed to be part of the committee are Baijayant Panda and Sanjay Jaiswal from the BJP, the SP's Chhotelal, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Anil Desai, LJP's Shambhavi and the CPI(M)'s K Radhakrishnan.

The committee will scrutinise the two "one nation one election" (ONOE) bills, including one for amending the Constitution.  Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur and P P Chaudhary, besides Bhartruhari Mahtab from the BJP, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the Congress are among the Lok Sabha members proposed for the panel.

Among the Lok Sabha members, 17 are from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, including 12 from the BJP.