New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Congress members in the joint parliamentary committee on scrutinising the bills for conduct of simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies Wednesday raised strong objections to the proposed law saying it violates the basic structure of the Constitution and is an attack on the federal structure of the country.

Congress members Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Surjewala, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik spoke at length during the first meeting of the 39-member panel headed by former Union minister P P Chaudhary and demanded studies to prove that this will help reduce costs of elections.

The law makes the states subservient to the Union which is against the very constitutional scheme, sources quoted Tewari as reportedly telling the panel.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said both articles 83 and 172 of the Constitution provide for a clear five-year tenure for state assemblies which cannot be curtailed.

She asked whether it was the high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind or the government which is seeking to introduce a new interpretation that five years is a "maximum tenure" or "full tenure" of the state assemblies.

She reportedly said this interpretation does not exist in the constitutional scheme and any dilution thereof negates the Constitution scheme and the basic structure doctrine.

Vadra also stressed that all the reports with regard to expenditure during elections that are being cited by the government are all pre-2002, even though 2004 onwards EVMs have come into play.

The Congress general secretary asked how the government can say that if you hold simultaneous polls, it would help reduce expenditure.

She asked the law ministry to provide the necessary study to prove thereof that holding simultaneous polls would help reduce expenses.

Another Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also spoke on the proposed law saying it is against the concept of federalism in the country.

He also asked the law ministry to disclose the new cost of 2019 and 2024 parliamentary elections which have not yet been disclosed.

He also asked the ministry to give a comparative chart as to how the cost will be reduced.

Sources said Surjewala reportedly said that the law is not only against the basic structure doctrine but violates against the very concept of federalism in India.

He alleged that one one hand the Modi government is diluting the powers of the states through GST and by imposing cesses which don't have to be shared with states, asserting that the current law will further undermine the federal structure completely.

He also said that without the new census having conducted, which will tell us the real population and relatable indices, how can one one say simultaneous polls can reduce costs of elections.

Wasnik said the Constitution states that India is a union of states. But this law brazenly violates that while spirit of the Constitution and consequently the basic structure, he reportedly said, the sources said.

This, he said, will also be harmful in as much as constraining the accountability of elected representatives is to be fixed.

The BJP members reportedly countered the arguments raised by the Congress and other opposition members during the meeting which lasted a few hours. PTI SKC ZMN