The government did not end the Budget session of Parliament Thursday sine die as planned earlier and instead decided to extend it and reconvene on April 16 ostensibly to take up amendments to the Women’s Reservation Act, a move which drew strong criticism from the Opposition as they alleged that the intention of the government to bring amendments in the middle of the Assembly election campaign was to make electoral benefits.
The indication was that the Parliament will meet for three days from April 16 — the crucial phase of the campaign in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The government plans to bring Bills to amend the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, seeking to delink the 33 per cent quota for women from the 2027 Census, opting instead to conduct a delimitation exercise which is an essential step towards its implementation based on 2011 Census data.
The government is believed to be considering increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 from 543, with around 270 to be reserved for women. The proposal seems to be to increase the Lok Sabha constituencies in such a way that the proportion of states remains the same. While the government had held informal consultations with some of the opposition parties, the main opposition Congress has so far stayed away from such deliberations and has instead asked the government to convene an all party meeting to build consensus on the issue.
The Congress has already panned the government move saying the argument that a 50 per cent increase in seats across-the-board is equitable is deceptive. The Congress has accused the government of preparing a law which will disadvantage smaller states in the South, Northeast, and West.
“Any increase in the gap in the existing strengths of different states in the Lok Sabha will place South Indian states at a disadvantage. For instance, currently Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats and Tamil Nadu has 39. With the proposed Bill, UP’s strength will zoom to 120 while Tamil Nadu will crawl up to at best 59. Similarly, Kerala will increase from 20 Lok Sabha seats to 30 seats, while Bihar will move from 40 to 60 seats. Overall, the southern states will gain 66 seats while the northern states will gain 200 seats,” Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh had said.
While welcoming the Government move to implement 33 per cent reservation for women, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, who has for long argued that the current proportional representation of States should not be disturbed in the delimitation exercise, had earlier urged the Centre to convene a special Parliament session in June to take up the amendments instead of pushing it when the model code of conduct was in place for Assembly elections.
Both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned Thursday till April 16. The government is learnt to have conveyed to the opposition parties that the Houses are likely to meet for three days beginning April 16. While the Government did not spell out that the session is being extended to take up amendments to the Women’s Reservation Act, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha that “we have a … duty, a commitment, which the House has given, Parliament of India has given to the women of this nation.”
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The Government’s move triggered a heated discussion between Treasury and Opposition benches in Rajya Sabha after the Congress asked the government to spell out its plan regarding adjournment of the session.
“We have certain Bills and certain important issues which we have shared with our members from the Opposition parties also. We are going to have a very important Bill in the next two to three weeks’ time. So today, the government would propose that the House be adjourned, and we will meet very soon for a very specific period … for the purpose of the session … is already known to the members,” said Rijiju.
To this, Ramesh said, “The government has a single-minded objective of getting some political advantage of passing the Bill, violating the election Model Code of Conduct … and have the Bill passed in the next two to three weeks.” He added that it was “wholly objectionable”.
Ramesh said Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Rijiju asking that “the all-party meeting for the purpose which the minister is mentioning be held after the election campaign is over, or after the elections are completed on April 29”.
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Rijiju responded, saying, “We have a … duty, a commitment, which the House has given, Parliament of India has given to the women of this nation.”
“For us, this has nothing to do with a specific state election … This is a commitment, this is a duty of the House. We have to take it forward because we face certain limitations when looking at the time scale … The principal Opposition party has written to us asking us to convene the meeting after April 29. We have noted down,” he said.
“But the problem is, the government is bound by the timeline, which is its limitation. We have a general election coming in 2029. Today, we are in April 2026 … Let us not go into the dates, but please cooperate with the government,” Rijiju said.
He also said that the government has “brought a simple proposal” and there is no point of objection, and “nothing controversial”.
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“Women’s reservation Parliament has passed unanimously … there shouldn’t be politics around women’s reservation, that we also agree, you also do. If we don’t convene … how will we make an important decision? We have given a commitment to the people. It is our duty to fulfil it,” he said.
Kharge also said he had written a letter and asked that an all-party meeting be held to allow opinions and proposals to be expressed. “We are not against women’s reservation. It has become unanimous with our support. These people… they take credit whenever they want. Everybody agrees…but at what time, how to bring it, how to do it…stop your games. If you had to do it, why didn’t you do it in three years? If you had to do it, why didn’t you bring it at the beginning of this session? We discussed rural development for three days. Could we not have discussed this? You call after the election, we will all cooperate… don’t take credit before the election,” Kharge said.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh backed Kharge’s argument. “If your intentions were pure, you could have brought it in this session. You want to do politics considering the election…not give reservation to women,” Singh said.
Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha J P Nadda said the government is “competent to decide the date and time for legislative business to be done.”
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“You think we’ll take credit… Why don’t you consider that the Bill that you were not able to pass in 30 years … was passed in two days? We have already taken credit for it. You always see everything from the angle of politics, not humanity…,” Nadda said.
To this, Opposition members responded that the matter of women’s reservation has been “remembered after 30 months”.
Ramesh said, “For 30 months, they slept. Suddenly, they have discovered, we don’t need a Census, we don’t need delimitation.”
