New Delhi [India], April 16 : Three significant bills, including on implementing women's reservation from 2029 Lok Sabha polls and on delimitation of constituencies, are slated to be introduced and taken up in the special sitting of the budget session of Parliament beginning today with the opposition questioning the basis of plans to redraw constituencies and increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats to a maximum of 850 from the existing 543.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Delimitation Bill, 2026 are slated to be introduced by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by Home Minister Amit Shah.
The government has convened a special sitting of Parliament on April 16,17,18 to pass the amendment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.
The Law Minister is also slated to move a proposal in the Lok Sabha to suspend the provisions of Rule 66 with the objective to pass the women's reservation amendment bill and the Delimitation Bill together.
The motion states that the this House "do suspend the proviso to rule 66 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha in its application to the motions for taking into consideration and passing of the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in as much as these are dependent upon the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, 2026".
The government has been seeking opposition support for passing the amendment bill to implement the women's reservation bill from 2029 Lok Sabha polls on the basis of 2011 census.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged opposition parties to support the amendment to ensure the women's reservation comes into effect from the 2029 general elections. "This is the wish of every sister and daughter of this country, and we must fulfil it with unanimity," he said at an event in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Opposition parties said on Wednesday that fully support early implementation of women's reservation but expressed firm opposition to the Delimitation Bill.
Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a meeting of opposition parties to discuss their stance.
"We are all in favour of the Women's Reservation Bill, but the way in which they (the government) have brought it, we have got reservations," Kharge said.
"We all have decided that we will continue supporting women's reservation as we did in 2010 and in 2023, as we unanimously accepted the constitutional amendment," he added.
The Congress president said the opposition parties want the government to implement the Women's Reservation Act immediately.
Kharge said that the opposition parties are against the proposed delimitation and noted that the government wants to give powers of Parliament to the executive.
He raised questions over the manner in which the Delimitation Commission worked in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that there was a unanimous resolve that the entire opposition will oppose the proposed delimitation.
He said the opposition wants that women's reservation must be implemented from the 2029 general elections on the basis of current Lok Sabha strength of 543, noting that three years were still available to complete the process. He pointed out that the opposition had earlier demanded its implementation from the 2024 General Elections itself.
He also criticised the government's move to link Women's Reservation with delimitation. He said the delimitation proposal of the government was "dangerous", pointing out that BJP leaders had said that an equitable number of seats will be increased for all states but there was no such provision in the proposed bill on delimitation.
He said the share of several states including in South India, North-West India, South-West India and East India will be decreased.
Apart from Congress, leaders from DMK, TMC, National Conference, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Aam Aadmi Party, Left parties, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party-SP, Shiv Sena-UBT were among those who attended the meeting.
The Delimitation Bill provides for the readjustment of the allocation of seats in the House of the People to the States and Union territories, the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State and Union territories having a Legislative Assembly, the division of each State and each Union territory having a Legislative Assembly into territorial constituencies for elections to the House of the People and Legislative Assemblies of the States and Union territories.
BJP leader Anurag Thakur accused the Congress and opposition parties of politicising the bills.
"I express my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, so that Indian women can have their rights. This demand has been raised for a long time, but remained unfulfilled. Congress, which ruled for many years and even recently from 2004 to 2014, only made promises. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi failed to fulfil them. But Narendra Modi has delivered on his promises. This is the Bharatiya Janata Party's commitment to women's empowerment. All the NDA constituents have stood together with full force," he said.
"Last time, it was passed unanimously, but this time, Congress and other opposition parties are politicising it. They are once again trying to prevent women from getting their rights. They are finding one excuse after another. The truth is that Congress and other parties do not seem to be in favour of women's empowerment. But no matter what, women must get their rights. Since becoming Prime Minister, Modi has ensured justice for women," he added.
The BJP leader accused Congress of "always tending to divide the country, sometimes based on caste and religion, sometimes based on region".
He said seats will not be reduced for any state.
"Even today, some Congress allies make the argument that the seats in southern states will be reduced. We want to say with great responsibility that no one's rights, no one's seats are being reduced, rather justice is being done to everyone," he said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, slammed the delimitation bill.
"One of the BJP's dangerous plans is to 'gerrymander' all Lok Sabha seats to its advantage for the 2029 elections The proposed Bills remove all Constitutional safeguards on delimitation, giving full power to the Delimitation Commission which the govt itself will appoint and direct. We have seen how BJP does this - it hijacked delimitation in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, where it split up anti-BJP regions and communities for electoral advantage," he said in a post on X.
"As a result, - some seats have 25 lakh voters, while some have only 8 lakh - some seats have 12 Vidhan Sabha segments, while some have only 6 - some seats are broken into pieces without connection, sometimes divided by rivers or mountains Having captured the Election Commission, PM Modi is confident that he can capture the Delimitation Commission too. The Congress will not allow this to happen," he added.
Gandhi said Delimitation should be based on a transparent policy framework, developed after wide consultations with a consensus.
"Indians of all communities and States should feel confident that they will be represented and their voices will be heard," he said.
Congress leader KC Venugopal termed the delimitation bill as "anti-national act".
"The delimitation amendment is an anti-national act that denies access to political power to women from Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities, and threatens to break India's federal structure. Southern, North Eastern and smaller states will see a massive shrinking of their political representation through this, and it will lead to catastrophic consequences for our Constitutional democracy," he said on X, in response to video posted by Rahul Gandhi.
"We demand that the latest caste census be used for delimitation and that no state is disadvantaged by this process. We reject this Bill in its current form," he added.