Simultaneous polls: Polls show BJP doesn’t have 2/3 majority for constitutional amendment, says Shashi Tharoor

Voting in the introduction phase of two bills to hold simultaneous elections in the Lok Sabha showed that the BJP did not have the two-thirds majority required to pass the constitutional amendment, Shashi Tharoor said. Photo: X/@manickamtagore

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday (Dec 17, 2024) hit out at the government, saying polls in the introduction phase of two bills to hold simultaneous elections in the Lok Sabha showed the BJP did not have the two-thirds majority required to pass the constitution. Revision.

On Tuesday (December 17, 2024), two bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha to provide for a mechanism for conducting simultaneous elections after heated debate.

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The opposition parties termed the draft laws – the Constitution Amendment Bill and a General Bill – as an attack on the federal structure, which the government rejected.

We (Congress) are not the only ones opposed to this bill, most of the opposition parties have opposed this bill and there are many reasons for it, it is a violation of the federal structure of the constitution. why If the central government collapses, then the state government collapses?” he told reporters at the Parliament premises.

“Why truncate the schedule of the person who enjoys the mandate of the people by looking at the schedule of another? It makes no sense. There cannot be a fixed tenure in a parliamentary system. The reason fixed tenure ended in 1969. The fact that our country has a parliamentary system… different houses, Different majorities, different coalitions, may rise and fall at different times,” Mr Tharoor said.

He added that there is no point in going through the trouble of changing the system like this because the same mess will happen again when the future government at the center or states loses the confidence of the majority.

“I think the whole thing is nonsense. Anyway, today’s vote shows that the BJP does not have the two-thirds majority needed to pass the constitutional amendment,” he said.

Mr. Tharoor said that the government could constitute a joint committee of Parliament in a manner that required a majority but constitutional amendments could not take place without a two-thirds majority in the House.

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