The government on Tuesday introduced two bills in the Lok Sabha seeking to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “one nation, one election” proposal, amid fierce opposition from the INDIA bloc and the BJP government’s sudden appetite for parliamentary scrutiny.

The House saw 269 members voting in favour of the introduction and 189 opposing it. The numbers would not have allowed the passage of a constitutional amendment as the government requires two-thirds majority for it. However, two-thirds majority is not needed to introduce an amendment bill, but the Opposition claimed symbolic victory.

“Undoubtedly, the government has larger numbers... but to pass it you need a two-thirds majority that they very clearly don’t have,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told reporters later. “It is obvious that they should not persist too long with this....”

In the House, the government expressed readiness to refer the bills to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for scrutiny, even before the introduction of the bills was over.

Home minister Amit Shah told the House that Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who was not in the House on Tuesday — had suggested sending the bills to a JPC.

“When the bills came up in the cabinet, PM Modi said this should be referred to a JPC for a detailed discussion at every level,” Shah said, asking law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who moved the bills, to recommend a JPC.

Shah’s intervention came as an aggressive Opposition demanded the rollback of the bills aimed at fulfilling the “whims” of “one gentleman”.

INDIA bloc parties closed ranks and fiercely opposed the simultaneous elections proposal, stressing that it violated the basic structure of the Constitution and was aimed at paving the way for a presidential style of government.

“How is it possible that the tenures of the state legislatures can be made subject to the tenure of the national legislature? The states are separate constituents and equal constituents,” Congress MP Manish Tiwari, the first speaker to oppose the bills, said.

Kalyan Banerjee of Trinamool argued that the bills were an assault on the basic structure of the Constitution as they proposed to “take away the autonomy of the Assemblies”.

“The bill seeks to give uncanny power to the Election Commission to end the tenure of the Assemblies against the mandate of the people. This is ultra vires (beyond the scope) of the Constitution. State Assemblies are not subordinate to Parliament,” Banerjee said, alleging that the proposal was aimed at “fulfilling the whims and desires of one gentleman”.

One of the two bills proposes to amend three Articles of the Constitution and insert Article 82A so that polls to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies can be held together. The new Article proposes to cut short the full five-year terms of some Assemblies to pave the way for elections along with Lok Sabha polls.

Congress’ Gaurav Gogoi called the proposal an “attack on people’s right to vote”. AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said it was “brought in tomassage the ego of thesupreme leader”.

Meghwal hailed the proposal as yet another bold reform under Modi’s leadership and claimed the basic structure of the Constitution would not be violated.