Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday urged the BJP-led NDA government to hold an “immediate” session of Parliament on Monday and bring in the old women’s reservation bill, which was passed in 2023 and announced just two days ago.
“They (Centre) should immediately bring a bill for old women on Monday, one that has been passed by all parties. Hold parliament on Monday, bring a bill and see who is the anti-woman. We will all vote and support you,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi held a press conference where he urged the government to take immediate action.
“If you want to do something concrete, bring back the bill that was passed unanimously in 2023 and that was supported by all parties. If you need to make a few small changes to it so that it can be implemented now, do it and implement it now. Give women their rights, now,” she said at a press conference on Saturday.
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Priyanka Gandhi reiterated that the opposition’s position is not against women’s reservation but against linking it with delimitation and census processes.
“Don’t try to mislead them by twisting it and attaching it to other things. Do it now. We are all ready,” she said, a day after the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which sought to tweak the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, failed the Lok Sabha test.
She said: “The session (of the special parliament) was called suddenly, with the draft (amendment to the constitutional law) shared only the day before, leaving no time for review. It looked like a plan to stay in power.”
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“Through delimitation based on the 2011 census and using women’s reservation, they aimed to redraw the constituencies in their favour. If it passed, they would continue; if not, they would label others as anti-women and project themselves as champions. But becoming a true champion of women is not easy; it requires action. It has a history, and she said the Congress party has such a history at a press conference.”
What is this dispute?
The bill at the center of the debate is the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced along with two other bills in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The bill was not passed in the Lok Sabha on Friday as the government did not get the support of the 2/3 majority (360) MPs needed to pass the bill.
The Constitution Bill sought to tweak the Women’s Reservation Act, which had been passed by Parliament as early as 2023. The old law had stated that the 33 percent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies would be implemented after the first census conducted after 2026 and the delimitation process that would eventually change the number of seats in the Lok Sabha.
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Now, the new bill has removed the provision that mandated delimitation after every census. The government proposed delimitation based on the old census (2011), followed by an increase in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 543 to 850. The bill then combined this with the Women’s Reservation Act.
“Implementation of reservation of seats for women is related to the constitutional scheme of adjusting the allocation of seats in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and in the Legislative Assemblies and the redrawing of boundaries of territorial constituencies by the Delimitation Commission,” the bill states.
It stated: “…the reservation shall take effect after the first delimitation has been carried out on the basis of the relevant census taken after the said amendment to the Act has come into force.”
Introducing the bill, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the membership of the Lok Sabha would be increased by 50 percent, “translating to 815 seats, of which 272 will be reserved for women, representing one-third of the strength of the House”.
Justifying the amendment, the bill said: “The next census and the subsequent delimitation exercise will take considerable time, thereby delaying the effective and dedicated participation of women in our democratic polity.
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Why did the opposition oppose the bill?
Opposition leaders said they were not against women’s reservation but against linking it to delimitation and census processes. They demanded that the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023 or the Constitution (One Hundred Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 (popularly known as “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam”) be implemented.
They questioned why the government suddenly decided to introduce reservations and change the structure of the Lok Sabha based on the old census.
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“The way they brought this bill, the things they attached to it, the delimitation, the 2011 census, it is very clear that they knew that this bill could not be passed. They just wanted political credit,” Priyanka Gandhi said.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra even asked the government to “implement reservation for women on the basis of 543 seats NOW” and asked, “What is stopping you? Jumblabazi Nahi Chalegi.”
