The Bharatiya Janata Party will send notices to several of its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to explain why they were absent from Parliament on Tuesday when voting was held on introducing bills that would enable simultaneous elections at the national and state level, The Hindu reported.
The party had sent a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha MPs, asking them to be present in the House on Tuesday.
Despite this, more than 20 BJP MPs were absent during voting on the introduction of the Constitution One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment Bill, 2024 and the Union Territories Laws Amendment Bill, 2024, NDTV reported, quoting unidentified sources.
However, some Union ministers and MPs had official engagements that had been fixed earlier, and had reportedly informed the BJP’s floor managers that they would not be present in the House.
Out of a total of 461 votes, 269 MPs voted in favour of introducing the bills, while 198 legislators voted against the proposal.
While introducing the bills only needed a simple majority, passing a constitutional amendment bill will need a two-thirds majority of 307 MPs.
On Tuesday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stated that voting on the introduction of the bills showed the Union government did not have the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment.
The proposal to conduct simultaneous polls follows recommendations made by a high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind. The panel suggested a phased approach, starting with national and state polls before aligning local body elections within 100 days of the simultaneous polls.
A timeline for the implementation of simultaneous elections, if the bills are passed by Parliament, is not clear.
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