One Nation, One Poll Bill tabled in Lok Sabha; Congress demands it’s immediate withdrawal

GUWAHATI, Dec 17: Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal today (Dec 17) tabled the bill for ‘One Nation, One Election’ in Lok Sabha with the bill likely to be referred to a joint committee for further consultation.

After the bill was tabled in Lok Sabha, it was met with scathing remarks from the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party.

The Uddhav Thackarey faction of the Shiv Sena also opposed the bill.

Congress’ Manish Tewari opposed the bill and demanded that it be “withdrawn immediately”. Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav and Trinamool’s Kalyan Banerjee also opposed the bill while three allies of the BJP — the TDP, Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party and the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena — have backed it.

The Union Cabinet had last week cleared the bill to implement the ‘one nation, one election’ proposal after it was recommended by a panel led by former President Ram Nath Kovind in September.