Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday told a parliamentary panel that the proposal to hold simultaneous elections in their current form was flawed and undermined the basic structure of the Constitution, particularly the core principles of parliamentary democracy, it is learnt.

The Congress leader is learnt to have made the submission during a meeting of the joint committee of Parliament on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which aim to ensure simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

The agenda for Monday’s meeting included interactions with Chidambaram, Padma Awardees from Delhi, representatives of Nation First Policy Research Centre and representatives of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

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Chidambaram, who is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, is learnt to have argued that since any legislature is elected for a five-year term, curtailing its tenure directly violates the basic structure of the Constitution. He also told the panel that his conscience does not allow him to support the Bills and stressed that the government does not have the numbers (two-thirds majority) to pass the legislation, it is learnt.

Some members of the committee from the Opposition parties are learnt to have opposed the proposal, claiming it would give too much power to the Election Commission of India.

The joint committee has BJP MP P P Chaudhary as its chairman, while its members include BJP’s Anil Baluni, Sanjay Jaiswal, Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Tewari, SP’s Dharmendra Yadav and TMC’s Sagarika Ghose.

On Monday, the committee also had a dialogue with a group of Padma awardees, some of whom supported the proposal while some opposed it.

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Speaking in support, one of the awardees is learnt to have said that frequent enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) halts developmental projects and emphasised that synchronised elections would ensure uninterrupted regional development.

Speaking to reporters, committee chairperson Chaudhary said Monday’s meeting spanned over seven hours. “First, we had a discussion of about one and a half to two hours with former Union minister and Rajya Sabha member P Chidambaram. All the members sought clarifications from him, and it was a very healthy and academic discussion. The entire committee, across party lines and rising above ideological differences, is working in the national interest to ensure that the best possible framework for One Nation, One Election is created,” said the BJP MP.

The Bills on simultaneous polls were introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2024, after which they were referred to the joint committee of Parliament for examination.