NEW DELHI, 25 February (H.S.) : The parliamentary committee headed by former president Ramnath

Kovind was constituted by BJP on One Nation One Election Committee (ONOE) and

it had in its voluminous report strongly batted for concept.

Former Law Commission of India chairperson Ritu Raj Awasthi

appeared on Tuesday, today before the JPC who is studying the two bills for

simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly Election as the panel began consulting

experts and stakeholders. Former chief justice of India U U Lalit is also appeared

before the committee during its day-long meeting. IAS officer Niten Chandra,

the secretary of the high-level ONOE committee, also shared his views as an

expert with the panel.

E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, a senior advocate and former

Congress MP who had headed in 2015 a parliamentary committee that favoured

simultaneous polls, will also share his views with the panel. The parliamentary

committee's agenda for the February 25 meeting is briefly listed as

interaction with legal experts. Subsequently, the Union Cabinet

accepted the committee's recommendations and the government tabled two bills,

including one seeking to amend the Constitution, in Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha

Speaker Om Birla constituted a 39-member Joint Parliamentary Committee headed

by BJP MP and former law minister P P Chaudhary.

The high-level committee headed by former president Ram

Nath Kovind was constituted by the Modi government on 'one nation one election'

(ONOE) and it had in its voluminous report strongly batted for the concept. The

parliamentary committee had so far held two meetings, excluding Tuesday's, in

which prepared broad details of its agenda and the list of stakeholders and

experts is given their consultation.

Hindusthan Samachar / Meenakshi Bhattacharya