According to the Gazette of India, the Central Government has appointed April 16, 2026 as the day the provisions of the Women’s Reservation Act shall come into force. Amendments of the Bill continue to be debated in the Parliament, and will be voted upon tomorrow.

Purnia MP Rajesh Rajan alias Pappu Yadav, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, slams Centre for rushing the Bills. 

“The country has always prayed women, but are they never respected” Mr. Ranjan. 

“755 MPs have cases of sexual exploitation against women. Out of which, 155 of them have a charge sheet against them,” says Mr. Ranjan 

Purnia MP says, “If we start talking about women, we will have to start from Manipur.”

He further talks about Armed Forces officer Sofiya Qureshi and slams the BJP leader over the remarks he made about the officer. 

Mr. Ranjan questions the motive of the BJP by calling a special session of the Parliament in the middle of the elections. 

A day after Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik urged Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi to convene a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the Delimitation Bill, he appealed to Members of Parliament from the State to support the amendment, provided Odisha’s share of representation is neither reduced nor compromised.

In a letter addressed to MPs on Thursday (April 16, 2026), the veteran leader said, “the proposed linkage between women’s reservation and the delimitation process (131st Constitution Amendment Bill), which is expected to follow the next Census, has far-reaching implications.”A day after Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik urged Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi to convene a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the Delimitation Bill, he appealed to Members of Parliament from the State to support the amendment, provided Odisha’s share of representation is neither reduced nor compromised.

Read more here

Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh says that he is opposing the Bill and says, “It is an attempt to reshape India’s democratic framework in the name of reform.” 

“They raise serious concerns about democratic participation and representation. The Indian National Congress supports the 33% reservation of Women,” says Mr. Suresh. 

“Women in this country have waited long enough. If the intention of the government was true, there are many immediate alternatives. It can be implemented within the existing number of seats,” adds Mr. Suresh 

BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, while speaking on the Women’s Reservation Bill, says that this is the best time to be a woman. 

“In Himachal Pradesh, we have 68 MLAs, but one woman MLA. Other States also have similar representation of 8% to 9%,” says Ms. Ranaut. 

Hitting back at the speech by Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, Ms. Ranaut says, “Whenever we try to do something, they say we are destroying democracy,” Ms. Ranaut adds. 

She slams the Opposition and says that they keep trying to mislead the people of the country. 

Praising the Prime Minister, Ms. Ranaut says, “No one is a bigger feminist than Prime Minister. He is the flagbearer for feminism.” 

The government has circulated a set of three Bills related to delimitation and women’s reservation. These Bills are expected to be taken up in the extended Budget session from April 16-18, and could affect the working of Parliament in several ways. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill proposes the following. The limit on the size of the Lok Sabha will be increased from 550 to 850. The number of seats for each State in the Lok Sabha will be based on its proportion in the population of all States.

Read more here

Congress MP Praniti Sushilkumar Shinde, while speaking during the debate, clarifies that the Opposition supports the Women’s Reservation Bill. 

“The Congress wanted it to be passed in 2023, but then, the Centre delayed the implementation, citing the upcoming 2027 census followed by delimitation. They kept on delaying it for three years. Why are you so eager now?” says Ms. Shinde. 

“The special session was called because of the ongoing elections in several States, including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.” says Ms. Shinde. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah slams the Opposition and says, “There is concern that this Bill is being brought in during elections in Tamil Nadu.”

Mr. Shah clarifies that, “The delimitation commission’s report will only be implemented after it is passed by Parliament and approved by the President.”

“There is no question of it being passed before 2029. All elections till then will be held on the existing number of seats.” Mr. Shah adds. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking on the debate, says, “A narrative that the three Bills will reduce the strength of South in the House.” He says, “I want to clarify the government’s stance on this issue.” 

“Karnataka has 28 seats in parliament. Currently, the number stands at 5.15%. Once the Bill is passed, the number will go up to 42, and the percentage will stand at 5.14%,” says Mr. Shah. 

“I want to assure the people of Tamil Nadu that your strength will not reduce. It is going up. The seats will go up to 59 seats, with the percentage becoming 7.23,” says Mr. Shah. 

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi slams the Centre and questions why the government is trying to push the Bill with the 2011 census that will undermine the representation of the OBC community. 

She says, “We should not take it lightly. It is a big number. They can’t run away from it by calling it a technical issue. We are fighting for their representation.” 

“PM Modi is scared that when the new census is complete. It will show the strength of this community, and no one will be able to take away their rights,” says Ms Gandhi. 

She adds that the government is trying to takeaway the rights of the OBC community through this Bill. 

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, while speaking in the debate, points out that Motilal Nehru was the first to talk about women’s reservation. 

While speaking about the PM’s address to the House, Ms Gandhi highlights the opposition that was raised by the then-opposition party against reservation in Panchayat. 

Ms. Gandhi says that the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi and said that the Women’s Reservation should be implemented by 2019. “He might make fun of Rahul Gandhi here, but gives it a thought back home.” 

“After listening to today’s address, it felt like the BJP has always been the champion of women’s reservation. However, they kept on saying that they don’t need the credit,” says Ms. Gandhi. 

J&KNC MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi claims that the Prime Minister tried to mislead the House by saying that the Opposition is against Women’s Reservation Bill. He says, “The Bill was passed in 2023. We are against the gerrymandering due to delimitation.” 

Mr. Mehdi says the delimitation will lead to gerrymandering in different constitution. 

“The balance even without delimitation is bad. It is tilted towards north. Few States like U.P., Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat can take decision of Jammu and Kashmir.” says Mr. Mehdi. 

“We are helpless because of the imbalance, and I want other States to also feel how Kashmir feels.” says Mr. Mehdi

IUML MP E.T. Mohammed Basheer while speaking in the debate, extends his support for the Women’s Reservation Bill, but oppose the Delimitation Bill. 

“This government doesn’t want to implement women’s reservation but want an escape route,” says Mr. Basheer. 

On the Constitutional Amendment Bill, he says,” when a legislation has so many consequences, you (Centre) are trying to enjoy the political gain.”

He further slams the ruling party for not following the procedure in such an important Bill. 

“Why are you linking Women’s Reservation with Delimitation? What is the logic?” 

On PM Modi’s address in the Parliament on the Women’s Reservation Bill, SP MP Dimple Yadav says, “All political parties are united in their support for this bill; why, then, is its format being altered repeatedly? You speak of 2029; well, we are ready. Implement the 33% reservation for women across all 543 parliamentary seats right now. The Samajwadi Party is fully prepared for this.”

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal claims that the party president wrote to the Prime Minister seeking an all-party meeting on the Women’s Reservation Bill, as the Opposition had some doubts. 

Mr. Venugopal raises a question for the Centre and says, “What will happen if you convene this session ten days after the election? When Tamil Nadu is in an election, you (Centre) want to pass legislation on Tamil Nadu.” 

BJP MP Kiren Rijiju in response to the claims made by the Congress MP, says,” We requested all the floor leaders of different parties. They came and attended. You should have raised it in the meeting. Why didn’t you attend the meeting?” 

“All decisions of delimitation in the past have passed through consensus,” says Mr. Venugopal. 

“On what basis did you decide the increase in seats... We are asking one thing. Can you perfectly put in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that this is not the delimitation fromn the Constitution to ordinary legislation.” 

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju clarifies that the Prime Minister did not claim, he (PM Modi) said that you (Congress) had no problem in giving reservation in the Panchayat. He said, “Why you have a problem in Assembly and Parliament. Please don’t mislead the House.” 

Responding to Mr. Rijiju, Congress K.C.Venugopal says,” We are the party that had the first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.” 

Mr. Venugopal further slams the Centre and says that the Centre delayed the Bill. He says, “You are using women’s reservation as a weapon to destroy democracy.” 

“We are giving you a blank cheque. Do it now. Our concern is very clear. As per the existing constitutional provision, this Bill is for shifting the decision of delimitation from the constitution to ordinary legislation.” 

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, while speaking, says, “PM Modi has given a speech in the Parliament and in his complete speech, we are searching for the word delimitation.” 

“The Opposition is raising a serious concern that the government of India, through this provision is taking away the constitutional cover of the delimitation issue”. 

He says, “He (PM Modi) is only speaking of Women’s reservation, but we passed it in 2023 unanimously.”

Mr. Venugopal poses three questions in the House for the Centre. “You could have done the Women’s reservation by 2024.”

“This Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2023 itself and parties requested it be implemented in 2024. If that was done, we wouldn’t be having this discussion today and women would already be a part of the Parliament and sitting in the House.,” NCP (SP) MP Amol Ramsing Kolhe says, delivering his speech in Marathi.

“With high migration towards cities and metros, urban areas in the country would have higher representation compared to rural areas in the delimitation process. Farmers and labourers might not get adequate representation,” he adds.

Arvind Samant from Shiv Sena questions on the link between women’s reservation and delimitation, specifically raising concerns over the Delimitation Commission which “shall determine it’s own procedures”. 

The Delimitation Bill proposes the setting up of a a Delimitation Commission, and its provisions are similar to the last one set up in 2002.

He also said that calling for a discussion now during elections to five States makes this a “political issue”.

“We have already made physical space in the House,” he says urging members of the House to vote in favour of the passage of the Bills.

Acknowledging the political motives of various parties, he concludes his speech by talking about a “ kaala teeka (black dot)”, applied to ward off negative energy as per tradition before taking a good step.

On the passage of the Bills to enable women’s reservation, PM Modi says “it is obvious that I will benefit from it politically”. But adds that if it is not done even after almost three decades of delay, the benefit will slip away from all parties and people.

“If it is about the credit, you can take it,” he says, addressing the members in a light moment. “Anyone here can publish their photo, I will give you a blank cheque to take credit,” he adds.

“We have already made physical space in the House,” he says urging members to vote in favour of the passage of the Bills. 

PM Modi says everyone urged for the women’s reservation to be taken up in 2023-24 itself, but it wasn’t possible due to time constraint.

“We shouldn’t delay it further. The Constitution hasn’t given any of us here to divide the country into “tukde (parts)”. We have to think as one nation. We cannot think in parts or take decision through that mindset,” he says.

The process for these Bills will not do any injustice to any State or discriminate against anyone, he stresses.

Urging members of the House, PM Modi says this is an opportunity to wholeheartedly welcome Nari Shakti’s contributions towards Viksit Bharat. 

“They are watching our decision, but also our intent today,” he adds.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the women’s reservation is “not in favour of any party”. 

“Not to Treasury Bench or Modi,” he asserts, saying the success will be for all citizens and ultimately to the credit of India’s democracy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving inside the Lower House. Credit: Sansad TV

TDP MP Byreddy Shabari, during the ongoing discussion, speaks in favour of the passage of the Bills in consideration to enable women’s reservation.

She also thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on behalf of all elected women’s representatives from Andhra Pradesh, on the move to provide 33% reservation.

If the Lok Sabha’s strength is expanded to 850 and seats are allocated on the basis of the 2011 Census population, as the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the companion Delimitation Bill to be tabled in Parliament envisage, the Southern States and the North-East would see a sharp erosion in their share of parliamentary representation, while the Hindi-Heartland States of northern India would be the overwhelming beneficiaries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to speak in the Lok Sabha on the three key Bills in consideration around 3 p.m. today.

Nistula Hebbar

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says the government “has a plan to re-delimit the constituencies to increase the number of seats in the areas where the ruling party is strong.” The women’s reservation is being used to bring about that change, he adds, terming it as “political demonetisation.”

“BJP has government in 21 States and Union Territories, then how many of their CMs are women? The one in Delhi is half chief minister, where are their rights? Does the Delhi CM has her rights?” Akhilesh Yadav asked, referring to CM Rekha Gupta.

Stressing on the need for census to be taken up before reservation, Mr. Yadav questioned the intent behind the Centre’s move. “First the census needs to be done, so that everyone gets their rights accordingly. They shouldn’t run away from the census or the caste census.”

Further, he said the SP demands that Muslim and OBC women be included in this reservation.

Samajwadi Party is and has always been in favour of women’s reservation, party chief Akhilesh Yadav says during the discussion on the introduced Bills in Lok Sabha. But the approach and narrative being set have been concerning, he adds

“How many women are part of the parental organisation that you come from?” Mr. Yadav questions the BJP. He argues that the “real goal” behind introducing women’s reservation is votes and to stay in power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just arrived in Parliament complex now. He is scheduled to speak in the Lok Sabha today on the discussion of the three key Bills. Before him Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to speak.

Sandeep Phukan

“I come from the south, from Karnataka, and over the last three days we’ve seen a systematic misleading and propaganda by the Opposition in the most anarchic fashion in southern India,” BJP MP Tejasvi Surya says in the Lok Sabha during the discussion.

“Delimitation is not a backdoor exercises, we are purely following what the Constitution mandates,” he says in response to Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi who spoke before him.

Mr. Surya said that if the Lok Sabha seats are frozen and women’s reservation is implemented as it is, “the principle in Article 81 of ‘One Person, One Vote, One Value’ will be defeated”.

YSR Congress Party leader Mithun Reddy says the party will support the three Bills if the government “gives in writing that the current strength of the States in Lok Sabha is maintained”.

Sobhana K. Nair

Further, Gaurav Gogoi says the timing to introduce these Bills indicates that the Centre is opposed to carrying out the caste census. “Today you are saying women’s reservation must come before caste census. You are bulldozing delimitation to bring about 1/3rd reservation.”

“The decision to take up caste census came after consistent pressure from us, led by Rahul Gandhi,” Mr. Gogoi says, hitting out at the Centre. 

He further asks: “Where did the number “850” to increase seats in Lok Sabha come from? Did it come from Nagpur? How can it come without a census or even a relevant parliamentary paper?”

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, opening the discussion for the Opposition, says Home Minister Amit Shah had brought the discussion on women’s reservation back in 2023 as well. “So why is it being introduced today as if it is a completely fresh thought and a historic moment?”

“We are in favour of women’s reservation. But we want it to be simplified and not linked with delimitation. Take up reservation based on the existing 543 seats in the Lok Sabha,” Mr. Gogoi says.

“You are connecting the two to delay the women’s reservation. If you had listened to us in 2023, women’s reservation would have come into effect in 2024 itself,” he adds.

The delimitation of constituencies for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies is to be carried out on the basis of the first Census after 2026. The 2021 Census was originally postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently due to delays on the part of the Central government.

Delimitation means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi seen outside Makar Dwar of the Parliament as the Lok Sabha takes up discussion on Bills to enable women’s reservation and delimitation.

Photo credit: Sreeparna Chakrabarty

All TMC MPs are likely to be present for the voting on the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill to enable women’s reservation. “20 to be sure,” TMC sources told The Hindu.

The voting on the passage of the Bills will be taken up at 4 p.m. on Friday (April 17, 2026).

The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, will ensure equality for women, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal says in the Lok Sabha, opening the discussion on the introduced Bills.

“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved,” Mr. Meghwal says, quoting Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar to talk in favour of women’s reservation.

Further, he refers to mentions of the women’s quota issue by APJ Abdul Kalam. “Definitely the reservation of 33% seats will come. It is only a matter of time, Mr. Kalam had said then and the time is here now,” Mr. Meghwal says, praising the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking this “historic step”.

Speaker Om Birla says the voting on the passage of the three key bills - ‘The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026’, ‘The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026’ and ‘The Delimitation Bill, 2026’ - will take place at 4 p.m. on Friday (April 17, 2026).

“The bills shall be taken up for discussion at length. About 15-18 hours or how much ever time shall be needed,” Mr. Birla says before Arjun Meghwal opens the discussion.

“When there is a Constitution amendment, the votes are different compared to an amendment to a law,” Union Amit Shah responds to the Opposition.

“After the Bill on Constitution amendment, to take the women’s reservation to its logical end, we need the other two Bills. Hence, they have been introduced together,” he adds. At length, the discussion is all on the same topic, he says. 

Mr. Shah states that this has happened many times in the past as well. “They have come decided to oppose everything, so they are standing on that,” he says, taking a jibe at the opposition

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, on behalf of the party, opposes the clubbing of the Delimitation Bill and the Constitution Amendment Bill for discussion and passing in the Lok Sabha.

“Here, one is the Constitution Amendment Bill and the other two are now. Clubbing will not be a good practice. There are consequences. When the Constitution Amendment Bill is going to be defeated, what is the point?” Mr. Venugopal says.

After the division of votes with over 251 AYEs, the Constitution Amendment Bill to enable women’s reservation, delimitation is introduced in the House.

Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal rises to table the bill.

Following the use of vote slips, the distribution stands as: 251 AYEs and 185 NOEs. 

This is subject to correction, the Speaker adds.

Vote slips are now being used in the Lok Sabha, following the division of votes where 333 members voted with no abstention.

“If any member wishes to change the vote, they may call for voting through slips,” LS Secretary General had said.

Total votes: 333

207 votes were in favour while 157 were in opposition of the introduction of the Bills.

The Lok Sabha primarily uses voice voting, but if challenged, a “division” is called, where the Automatic Vote Recorder (Ayes, Noes, Abstain) is utilised.

Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Singh briefs the House on automatic vote recording system. The Lok Sabha primarily uses voice voting, but if challenged, a “division” is called, where the Automatic Vote Recorder (Ayes, Noes, Abstain) is utilised.

“The votes will not be registered if the votes are kept pressed before the first gong or if they aren’t pressed simultaneously till the second gong. Members can check their vote on individual results board,” Mr. Singh says.

“If any member wishes to change the vote, they may call for voting through slips,” he adds.

Amit Shah, in response to Akhilesh Yadav, says the process of Census has begun. “The government has already taken the decision to conduct the caste census. The Census 2027 is being done with caste in account.”

“If SP has its way, they might even give caste to houses. I want to assure the House that the Census is going to happen with the caste census as well,” he says, taking a jibe at the opposition party.

Based on religion, reservation of any kind for Muslims is unconstitutional, Mr. Shah says.

To this, Mr. Yadav asks whether Muslim population does not come under the 50% bracket. “Let SP give all its tickets to Muslim women, we don’t oppose it,” Mr. Shah retorts.

Speaker Om Birla stops the exchange, asking them not to “debate” in this manner.

“Why is the Centre rushing for women’s reservation? Start with the Census first,” Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav says. He stated that the Samajwadi Party is for women’s reservation, but is opposed to the approach via delimitation.

“As soon as Census is done, we will ask for caste census and then the reservation issue will come. Hence, you are cheating us,” he adds.

Soon after the three significant bills were tabled in Lok Sabha, Congress MP K.C. Venugopal and Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav expressed their opposition to the amendments.

“The government wants to completely hijack the Constitution,” Mr. Venugopal says. To this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Home Minister Amit Shah say that the bills have been introduced and the discussion on them are yet to follow.

Speaker Om Birla also urges the Opposition MPs to wait till Rule 72 of the Lok Sabha’s Rules of Procedure during which the process for opposing the introduction of a bill will commence.

Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal introduces the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill, 2026.

Home Minister Amit Shah tables the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in Lok Sabha.

Following the biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha, newly elected members take oath or affirmation as members of the Upper House.

BJP’s National President Nitin Nabin takes oath.

Both Houses commence the special sitting of the Parliament. 

Chairpersons begin with obituary references, including a mention of singing legend Asha Bhosle who passed away of April 12.

On DMK chief M.K. Stalin burning a copy of the Delimitation Bill as part of the statewide protest in Namakkal, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju says the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister “is playing politics and is misguided by some people here”. 

“Tamil Nadu or any state should not worry. They should not misguide and mislead the people. That’s my appeal... Every state, every union territory of India, need not worry. Everybody will be given a fair chance, representation and opportunities,” he adds.

“This is not a Women’s Reservation bill, this is a Delimitation Bill dressed up as a Women’s Reservation bill, and that is the principal objection,” says Congress MP Manish Tewari, ahead of the special sitting of the Parliament. 

“I am the greatest supporter of women’s reservation. The government should delink it from delimitation. They should bring a proposal before the House that out of the existing 543 seats in Parliament, one third, that is 181 seats, should be reserved for women, and it should be operationalised by 2029. However, when you link it with the process of delimitation, you run into a complete minefield,” he adds.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Thursday (April 16, 2026) said that discussions regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill and the proposed delimitation exercise would take place in Parliament. “Further discussions on this will take place in the House,” Mr. Meghwal told ANI ahead of the commencement of the session.

As per the list of business, The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Delimitation Bill, 2026 are slated to be introduced by Mr. Meghwal, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by Home Minister Amit Shah.

Ahead of the special session of the Parliament on Thursday (April 16, 2026), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “the country is set to take historic step” toward strengthening women’s empowerment.

Delimitation means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies. It also includes determining the seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in these houses. 

Article 82 and 170 of the Constitution provide that the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative assemblies as well as its division into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted after each Census. This ‘delimitation process’ is performed by the ‘Delimitation Commission’ that is set up under an act of Parliament. Such an exercise was carried out after the 1951, 1961 and 1971 Census.

Read The Hindu’s explainer on delimitation exercise,

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah writes, “The issue has never been about whether the number of Lok Sabha seats should increase. It is about how they increase, and more importantly, who benefits. Delimitation is not a routine administrative exercise. It is a redistribution of political power, and in Parliament, numbers are not symbolic; they are decisive.”

Read the full article here,

Kerala Chief Minister has demanded that the Union government withdraw from its “anti-democratic move” to carry out a delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government’s move cannot be seen as a simple administrative reform.

All States will have their number of Lok Sabha seats increase by half after delimitation, and no State will lose its current proportional strength in Parliament, a senior government functionary told The Hindu on Wednesday (April 15, 2026). He said that Home Minister Amit Shah would clarify this in the Parliament when the debate on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the Delimitation Bill opens on Thursday (April 16, 2026). 

Read here the full article,

Women’s rights activists and civil society members on Tuesday (April 14, 2026) said the women’s reservation Act should be implemented immediately at the current strength of the Parliament and should not be used as a “smokescreen” for delimitation.

Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader Brinda Karat writes, ”In September 2023, to blunt mounting criticism of its failure to legislate on women’s reservation, the government hastily pushed through the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (NSVA) in a so-called “special session”, just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 

This legislation was markedly different from the Bill which had been adopted by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. If that Bill, which had gone through several rounds of parliamentary scrutiny, had been presented by the government, as it should have been, women’s reservation could have been implemented from the 2024 elections itself.”

Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi writes, “It appears that some formula for delimitation is being suggested. Any delimitation must be preceded by a Census exercise as in the past. And it goes without saying that any delimitation involving an increase in the strength of the Lok Sabha must be politically — and not just arithmetically — equitable. States that have been pioneers in family planning, and smaller States, must not be placed at an absolute or relative disadvantage.”

Nearly 500 women’s rights activists said that the break-up of the 33% quota State-wise could be according to the States’ seat shares, and revised following every expansion of the legislature.

On the expansion of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies, they said it was connected to population counts as per the ongoing 2027 Census, including the Caste Census, and should be discussed at a separate parliamentary session.

DMK president and Chief Minister M. K. Stalin on Tuesday (April 14, 2026) cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi “not to play with fire” – the proposed delimitation – and cautioned Union Minister Piyush Goyal to “mind his tongue” while speaking about Tamil Nadu and its people.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday (April 16, 2026) burnt a copy of the Delimitation Bill and dubbed it a “black law” and alleged it seeks to make the Tamil people “refugees” in their own land.

Mr. Stalin hoisted a black flag and burnt a copy of the Bill on delimitation circulated by the union government and raised slogans condemning the move, hours before the Parliament was to sit for a special session.

“Poradavom, Velvom ondraga” (Let us struggle, win together) was among the slogans raised by Mr. Stalin and others clad in black. - PTI

The government intends to introduce a Constitution Amendment Bill, a Bill concerning delimitation law, and an enabling Bill to implement the proposed legislation in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry—three Union Territories with their own legislatures—during the Lok Sabha session on April 16 to expedite the enactment of the Women’s Reservation Act of 2023.

The BJP has issued a three-line whip to all its MPs, urging them to remain present in their respective Houses during the extended Budget session of Parliament starting on Thursday (April 16, 2026). The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (April 8, 2026) approved a draft amendment Bill to operationalise the Women’s Reservation Act by the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.