Overview
- At a Bengaluru hearing on Saturday, the Joint Parliamentary Study Committee took submissions from parties on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and its chair P. P. Chaudhary said simultaneous national and state polls should go ahead.
- BJP leaders from Karnataka urged adoption of the plan, while Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar said the move is unworkable and centralises power, citing a Karnataka Assembly resolution that rejects the proposal.
- AAP opposed the amendment and questioned the claimed savings, arguing the bill does not show how costs would fall or how democracy would be strengthened.
- Chaudhary outlined a roadmap that could sync all elections by 2034, said voting would still occur in phases under the Election Commission’s schedule, and floated German and Japanese models plus anti-defection changes to handle mid-term collapses.
- JD(S) on Sunday backed the amendment with conditions that curb special powers proposed for the Election Commission to delay state polls and that add legal safeguards for coalition stability and regional parties.