New Delhi:
The ruling BJP doesn’t have – as on Tuesday night – the numbers to push by means of the Lok Sabha the 2 payments to amend the Structure and information its ‘one nation, one election‘ dream a step nearer to actuality.
The payments – one proposing adjustments to the length and dissolution of state legislatures and linking their phrases to the Lok Sabha, and a second proposing comparable adjustments to the legislatures of the union territories of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry – had been tabled in the Lower House today.
Their tabling triggered anticipated fierce protests from the opposition, with the Congress, the Samajwadi Get together, the Trinamool, the DMK, and a raft of smaller events, together with the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi, all attacking a proposal they mentioned subverts the fundamental construction of the Structure.
Two of the BJP’s allies – Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Get together and the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde – expressed help. And the BJP itself got here out swinging in its defence, with Mr Meghwal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju batting exhausting.
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Advisable by a panel led by ex-President Ram Nath Kovind – which submitted a report in September suggesting measures to make the BJP’s ‘one nation, one ballot’, or ONOP, imaginative and prescient come true – these amendments to the Structure would require a two-thirds majority to clear the Lok Sabha.
The ONOP Numbers Recreation
And it seems – because the Congress exulted after the vote to desk the payments – it the BJP doesn’t have that majority. Get together leaders Manickam Tagore and Shashi Tharoor, after the division vote, identified the BJP had managed solely 269 votes in help of its initiative. 198 MPs stood against it.
“Two-thirds majority (i.e., 307) was wanted out of the full 461 votes… however the authorities secured solely (269), whereas the opposition received 198. The ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal failed to achieve two-thirds help,” Mr Tagore mentioned on X, with a screenshot of the e-voting system.
READ | Congress’ “2/3rd Majority” Jab At BJP Over ‘One Nation, One Poll’
“Undoubtedly the federal government has bigger numbers… however to go it (payments to amend the Structure) you want a 2/3 majority that they very clearly do not have,” he informed reporters after the Home was briefly adjourned, “It’s apparent that they need to not persist too lengthy with this…” Mr Tharoor mentioned.
Two-thirds majority (307) was wanted out of the full 461 votes, however the authorities secured solely 263, whereas the opposition received 198. The ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal failed to achieve two-thirds help. pic.twitter.com/5GIQQ0qY7r
— Manickam Tagore .B🇮🇳மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப (@manickamtagore) December 17, 2024
Whereas a easy majority of these current and voting is sufficient to enable a invoice to be tabled, laws to amend the Structure requires approval from two-third of the members current and voting.
On this case, if at present’s division vote was meant to go and never simply introduce the invoice, the federal government’s proposal to amend the Structure would have been defeated. The truth is, even at full power the BJP and its allies, the Nationwide Democratic Alliance, wouldn’t have the numbers – it has solely 293 MPs in its camp.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc has 234 after a surprisingly robust April-June federal election.
The BJP will, due to this fact, want help, from non-aligned events, however there are solely two prospects – the YSR Congress with 4 MPs and the Akali Dal with one, and each have pledged their help.
That leaves Prime Minister Narendra Modi needing a minimum of 9 extra votes – not unattainable to cobble collectively for the BJP – for his ‘one nation, one election’ dream to cross the Lok Sabha.
For now, the invoice will seemingly be despatched to a joint committee to be constituted based mostly on every celebration’s Lok Sabha numbers. It will imply the BJP may have the utmost members and lead the committee.
What Is ‘One Nation, One Election’?
Merely put, it means all Indians will vote in Lok Sabha and Meeting elections – to select central and state representatives – in the identical yr, if not on the similar time.
As of 2024, solely 4 states voted with a Lok Sabha election – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha voted alongside the April-June Lok Sabha election. Three others – Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir – voted in October-November.
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The remaining comply with a non-synced five-year cycle; Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana, for instance, had been amongst these voted at completely different occasions final yr, whereas Delhi and Bihar will vote in 2025 and Tamil Nadu and Bengal are amongst these that may vote in 2026.
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