BJP likely to issue notices to 20 MPs absent during voting on 'One Nation, One Election' in Lok Sabha: Sources

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to issue notices to around 20 MPs who were absent during voting on the 'One Nation, One Election' Bill in Lok Sabha today (December 17), even after a whip was issued for all the party MPs to be present in the House, said sources.

The Constitutional (129th Amendment) Bill regarding the simultaneous elections was introduced in the Lok Sabha after the first-ever e-voting in the Parliament. The motion of introduction was passed with a majority. A total of 269 votes were polled in favour of the motion while 198 were polled against the motion. The bill will now be sent to the joint committee of Parliament for



wider deliberations at every level. 

Senior Congress leader and former Minister Manish Tewari dubbed the bill as against the Constitution. He said that beyond Schedule 7 is the basic structure that can not be changed and the bill in question is an assault on the Constitution. 

He demanded the bill to be withdrawn immediately. Following Tewari's opposition, several other opposition parties iterated a similar stance that the bill is against the spirit of the Constitution. SP leader Dharmendra Yadav, TMC's Kalyan Banerjee and DMK's TR Balu, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi were among the prominent names who opposed the bill.