Anti-constitutional, against federalism: Cong slams bills for holding simultaneous polls

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) The Congress on Tuesday claimed the bill on holding simultaneous polls was against federalism and “anti-constitutional”, and said the voting at its introduction stage in Lok Sabha showed the BJP lacks the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment.

Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday.

Opposition parties dubbed the draft laws — a Constitution amendment bill and an ordinary bill — as an attack on the federal structure, a charge rejected by the government.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament premises, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “Anti-constitutional bill, it is against the federalism of our nation. We are opposing the bill.”

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also hit out at the government, saying voting at the introduction stage showed the BJP did not have the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment.

“We (the Congress) are not the only ones that have opposed this bill. The vast majority of the opposition parties have opposed this bill and the grounds are very many, it is a violation of the federal structure of the Constitution. Why should a state government fall if the central government falls?” he told reporters on the premises.

“Why should the timetable of one who enjoys the mandate of the people be truncated because of the timetable of another? It makes no sense. In a parliamentary system, you cannot have fixed terms. The reason that fixed terms ended in 1969 is because of the fact that we have in our country a parliamentary system… different Houses, different majorities, different coalitions, may rise and fall at different times,” Tharoor said.

He added that going through the trouble of changing the system like this made no sense because it would again result in “the same mess” when a future government at the Centre or in the states lose the confidence of the majority.

“My view is that this entire thing is a folly. In any case, the votes today have demonstrated that the BJP does not have the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment,” he said.

Tharoor said the government might constitute Parliament’s joint committee in such a way that it has a majority, but without a two-thirds majority in the House there would not be a constitutional amendment.

“So this discussion is increasingly futile,” he added.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore said the bills have “completely misfired” because the BJP does not have the numbers.

“If there would have been a voting on the bills today, the bills would not have passed since two-thirds majority was needed (for constitutional amendment),” Tagore said.

The bills were introduced after the opposition sought a division of votes.

After electronic voting and a subsequent count by paper slips, the bills were introduced with 269 members in favour and 198 against.

This was the first time that the electronic voting system was used in the Lok Sabha in the new Parliament House.