ONOP Is Biggest Challenge For Modi 3.0 As It Does Not Have ‘Scrap 370’ Sentiment
Last Updated:
The NDA has 293 MPs in Lok Sabha out of 543 seats, and 125 MPs in the Rajya Sabha in a house of 245
When the bill was put to voting for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the government got 269 votes. (PTI File)
The Narendra Modi government needs two-thirds majority to pass the ‘One Nation, One Poll’ (ONOP) constitutional amendment bill in both the houses of Parliament. While it does not have such numbers, it is a big ask to break the opposition ranks for support on this as well.
When the bill was put to voting for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the government got 269 votes, while the opposition got 198 votes out of total 461 votes that were cast. Congress MP Manickam Tagore said the government hence did not get two-thirds majority support while introducing the bill.
The ONOP bill does not have the same “nationalistic sentiment” like the bill on scrapping Article 370 had, and the entire opposition is against it, a senior opposition leader told News18 in Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had succeeded in getting the support from opposition benches in Rajya Sabha in 2019 to get the constitutional amendment passed to scrap Article 370.
THREAT TO REGIONAL PARTIES
But the situation is not so conducive regarding the constitutional bill on ONOP. “Besides the Congress, the three big regional opposition parties — the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — are all vociferously against the ONOP bill,” the opposition leader said.
In fact, the regional parties see the ONOP bill as a threat to their very existence. They fear that the BJP has a strong pan-India leader like Narendra Modi, which could give the BJP a runaway advantage in the states dominated by regional parties so far, if ONOP is implemented. “The regional parties also face the challenge of having limitations of financial resources and cadre to fight a general election and a state election simultaneously. The BJP and the Congress are better placed in that regard (finances and cadre) and it is the regional parties which will be facing a very big issue,” a SP leader explained.
Another problem for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is that other regional parties such as the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are no longer expected to support the BJP in passing such contentious legislations as earlier.
While the BJD and YSCRP have turned against the BJP after the assembly election results in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where they were adversaries, the BRS, too, is not on the BJP’s side anymore. The AIADMK and the BJD expressed its nod to a ONOP bill while deposing before the Ram Nath Kovind committee earlier this year before the state elections took place. These parties are keeping their cards close to the chest.
NUMBERSPEAK
A constitutional bill requires 2/3rd majority of members present and voting, and 50% of total house strength for it to be passed. The NDA has 293 MPs in Lok Sabha out of 543 seats, and 125 MPs in the Rajya Sabha in a house of 245. The NDA had 343 seats in the Lok Sabha in 2019 when it got the constitutional amendment bill passed regarding scrapping Article 370. At that time in 2019, the Article 370 abrogation bill was passed by Rajya Sabha with 125 votes in its favour and 61 against (67% in favour). The next day, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha with 370 votes in its favour and 70 against it (84% in favour). The road is much tougher for Modi 3.0 regarding the ONOP bill.
Home minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked for the ONOP Bill to be sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for wide consultations.
The BJP has also been tasked to build national awareness regarding the benefits of the ONOP bill to build a larger consensus. The government has also indicated that the ONOP bill, if passed, will be a reality only from 2034.
