A group of experts has advocated reservation for women in organisations of political parties and for empowering the Election Commission to oversee the working of inner-party democracy among their suggestions to the parliamentary committee scrutinising the simultaneous election bills.

The experts, including former BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who has been associated with various think tanks, appeared before the panel on 12 August, Monday, and extended their complete support to the concept of “one nation, one election”.

Claiming that simultaneous elections will prove to be the “mother of all reforms”, they said several other democratic reforms are much needed and submitted their “Charter of Suggestions for Democratic Reforms” to the panel headed by BJP MP P.P. Chaudhary.

“All political parties could be encouraged to provide a quota for women in their party organisations,” they said, citing it as one of several measures needed to prepare women to take full advantage of the reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Besides Sahasrabuddhe, other experts on the panel are G. Gopal Reddy, Miranda House’s governing body chairperson; Sushma Yadava, former pro vice chancellor, Central University of Haryana; Sheila Rai, general secretary of the Rashtriya Samaj Vigyan Parishad; and Nani Gopal Mahanta, professor in the department of political science and director, Centre for South East Asia, Gauhati University.