Anurag Thakur, Priyanka Gandhi Among 21-Member Of Parliament Panel On Simultaneous Polls

The government has formed a 21-member Joint Parliamentary Panel to look into the One Nation One Election bills. Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur and P P Chaudhary from the BJP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Manish Tewari of the Congress and Kalyan Banerjee of the TMC are among the members. These MPs will scrutinise two bills on simultaneous elections.

The Lok Sabha's list of business for Thursday included the names of 21 MPs to be part of the committee, a motion on whose constitution will be moved by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Other members of the JPC are Former Union minister Parshottambhai Rupala, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Anil Baluni, C M Ramesh, Bansuri Swaraj, Vishnu Dayal Ram and Sambit Patra from the BJP, Manish Tewari and Sukhdeo Bhagat of the Congress, Shrikant Shinde of the Shiv Sena, Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Kalyan Banerjee of the TMC, T M Selvaganapathi of the DMK, G M Harish Balayogi of the TDP, Supriya Sule of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), Chandan Chauhan of the RLD and Balashowry Vallabhaneni of the Jana Sena Party are other Lok Sabha members.

Chaudhary, a former minister of state for law, is seen as the likely chairperson of the committee, sources said, adding that Thakur is also a contender. Speaker Om Birla will take the final call according to the rules.

Rajya Sabha will name its 10 members for the committee in a separate communication. Among the Lok Sabha members proposed to be on the committee, 14 are from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, including 10 from the BJP.