New Delhi:

From the economic viability of One Nation, One Election to the number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) required for such a mammoth exercise, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra raised key questions at the first meeting of the joint parliamentary panel examining the Bill.

While the Congress leader did not speak to the media, sources said she had asked if simultaneous elections to Parliament and state Assemblies would be economically viable and how many EVMs would be required for the polling in one go. A Congress MP who attended the meeting said One Nation One Election would violate the basic structure of the Constitution upheld by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case. In this landmark judgment, the top court ruled that while Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution, it cannot alter its basic structure the fundamental features of which are democracy, secularism, federalism, and the rule of law.

The Parliamentary committee, comprising 39 members, is examining two Bills — the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill. The pieces of legislation were introduced in Lok Sabha during the Winter Session and then referred to the panel.

The panel, headed by BJP’s PP Chaudhary, has 27 Lok Sabha MPs and 12 Rajya Sabha MPs. The prominent names include BJP’s Anurag Singh Thakur, Bhartruhari Mahtab and Dr Sambit Patra, Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Manish Tewari, Trinamool Congress’s Kalyan Banerjee and NCP’s (Sharad Pawar) Supriya Sule.

The Centre’s Bill for One Nation One Election is based on recommendations of a committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind. The arguments in favour of simultaneous election are that such a system would cut campaign costs, pave the way for more efficient governance and ease the strain on manpower and government resources deployed for polls. The panel led by former President Kovind spoke to 47 political parties and took their opinion on One Nation One Election — 32 supported it, 15 opposed it.

Congress and other parties in the Opposition have said that the proposal for simultaneous polls subverts the basic structure of the Constitution.

There is also a numbers twist. To get this Constitution amendment Bill through the Parliament, the BJP needs two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha. The NDA does not have the numbers, so it would need to look beyond its fold for support. While the YSR Congress and the Akali Dal have voiced support for the Bill, NDA falls well short of the target.