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Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. File
| Photo Credit: Agencies
The Law Ministry notified on Sunday the eight-member committee on holding simultaneous polls under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind. The committee will have Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former chairman of the 15 Finance Commission N.K. Singh, former Secretary General of Lok Sabha, Subash C. Kashyap, Senior Advocate Harish Salve and former C.V.C. Sanjay Kothari.
Law Ministry Arjun Meghwal will also attend meetings of the High Level Committee. The Committee will commence functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest. There is no fixed timeline by when it needs to submit its report.
The committee will examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and any other laws and rules which would require amendments for the purpose of holding simultaneous elections.
It will also examine and recommend, if the amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by the States.
The committee will also analyse and recommend possible solutions to scenarios such as hung House, adoption of no-confidence motion, or defection or any such other event in case of simultaneous elections.
The committee will hear and entertain all persons, representations and communications which in its opinion can facilitate its work and enable it to finalise its recommendations.
(with inputs from PTI)
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