Showing a sense of urgency, India's political parties have agreed to pass a bill in parliament without debate to amend electoral laws to give voting rights to 14,000 people who became Indian citizens following exchange of enclaves with Bangladesh.

At an all-party meeting held yesterday, major parties decided that the bill would be passed without discussion and debate because fresh elections to West Bengal state legislature are approaching soon in order to save time, reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting meeting sources.

The issue at the meeting was raised by Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to which all the parties, including West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, readily agreed, they said.

Two days ago, the Indian cabinet gave its nod to amend Section 11 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to allow a limited exercise to identify the constituencies and allow voting rights, an official statement said.

Other than the 14,000 people of the 51 enclaves that became part of India, about 921 who came from Bangladesh have also become Indian citizens.

The budget session of Indian parliament would begin on February 23 while the proposed bill is likely to be introduced on March 1. The plan is to get it passed by both the Houses of parliament by March 4 so that the Election Commission can begin the delimitation exercise in the limited time it has.

Once passed, the proposed Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will enable the Election Commission to carry out limited delimitation of state legislature and parliamentary constituencies in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal following the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi and 111 Indian enclaves in July last year.

The term of the 294-member West Bengal legislature ends on May 29 this year and fresh elections are likely to be held before that.

Sources in Indian law ministry said that at a recent meeting between officials of the ministry and the Election Commission, the poll watchdog made it clear that it was necessary to grant voting rights to these people as the assembly polls in West Bengal were nearing.

Following delineation of constituencies, these people will be made voters of assembly and parliamentary constituencies.

The enclaves were exchanged pursuant to the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement and Protocol and Instruments of Ratification signed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh on June 6-7 last year.