We are ready for 2-D Bills — Delimitation and Dismissal: Jairam Ramesh

Ahead of the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the Congress exuded confidence that a united opposition will be able to stall the delimitation bill again if the government returns it, as well as the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which calls for the automatic removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers if they are arrested and detained for 30 days.

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Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh, in an interview with The Hindu, termed the former “dangerous” and the latter “diabolical” and claimed that the government did not have the numbers, despite a split in the Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT).

“We are ready for 2-D Bills – Delimitation and Dismissal,” Mr. Ramesh said, referring to the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill as the “Dismissal Bill”.

On 17 April, a united opposition defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which sought to redistribute Lok Sabha seats based on the 2011 census to speed up the implementation of women’s reservation.

“If you go by what happened that day, there were 528 members in the Lok Sabha who voted on the bill. The government needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill, which made it 352. As opposed to 352, the government got 298. Now they say they have 324, which means they are still significantly short,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He further argued that the government could arrange for abstentions to lower the majority mark. “I am not exaggerating them, but even if they agree to abstain, they are still short of the required number,” Ramesh added.

Describing the recent split in the Trinamool and Shiv Sena (UBT) as a serious setback for the opposition, Mr. Ramesh said all opposition parties remained in touch. On 17 April, all nine Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs and 22 out of 28 Trinamool MPs voted against the bill.

“I am not underestimating the challenges we face. It will be a tightrope walk but I am confident we will be able to stop both laws,” Mr Ramesh said.

Asked whether the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s distance from India’s National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) could help the government in passing laws, given the recent tension between the Dravida Party and the Congress, Mr Ramesh said: “Nothing has happened to convince me that the DMK has suddenly softened towards the BJP. I believe they continue to be against everything BJP; the BJP stood for the negP.”

He further pointed out that despite the DMK’s absence from the June 8 INDIA block meeting, it joined the Aam Aadmi Party, which also did not attend the meeting, and signed a joint opposition memorandum to the Chief Justice of India on special intensive review and election issues.

He also appealed to MPs who broke away from Trinamool to join the National Civic Party of India to be aware of the inconsistency of their position when they voted against the bill in April.

“It is not only unreasonable but also immoral for them to change their position now,” Mr Ramesh said.

He alleged that the split in Trinamool and Shiv Sena (UBT) was engineered by Home Minister Amit Shah. “The Home Minister was humiliated on April 17 by the opposition. What you are seeing today is his revenge for that humiliation,” Mr. Ramesh added.

The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 is currently being reviewed by a joint parliamentary committee headed by BJP leader Aparajita Sarangi. It is expected to submit its report before the monsoon session begins on July 20.

“I don’t think people have understood the true travesty of the sacking bill (130th Amendment of the Constitution Act). Any Chief Minister or Minister who is arrested and cannot get bail for various reasons can be automatically removed on the 31st. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary can use the investigative agencies in any way to destabilize any state government using this bill,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He further said that Congress was not opposed to “abstract delineation as a principle” but was concerned about how it would be carried out. “It should not be rushed,” said Mr. Ramesh.

He pointed out that the delimitation commission appointed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government took six years to carry out the exercise, while the Narendra Modi government wanted to complete it in “12 to 15 months”. “Delimitation should not be done the way it was done in Jammu, Kashmir or Assam. In both places it was gerrymandering, not delimitation,” he said.

Published – 05 Jul 2026 21:47 IST