The opposition parties are likely to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the implementation of the old Women’s Reservation Bill.
According to news agency ANI, parties within the INDIA alliance
will also hold press conferences across the country to reiterate their support for women’s reservation. However, they are expected to allege that the “government was trying to change the political map of the country under its guise.”
This comes after the Constitution amendment bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures in 2029, and an increase in the number of seats of the Lok Sabha was defeated in the Lower House. While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it.
Of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
According to the opposition, the failure of the Constitution amendment bill to secure a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha was a clear political setback for the Modi government.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the government’s bill was an attack on the Constitution. “As I have said, it was an attack on the Constitution, and we defeated that,” he said outside Parliament.
“We clearly said that this was not a women’s bill, but an attempt to change India’s electoral structure,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi said if PM Modi wants the women’s bill to be implemented, he should bring the 2023 law and implement it from today.
Later, in a post on X, he said, “The amendment bill has fallen. They used an unconstitutional trick in the name of women to break the Constitution.” He exulted, “India has seen it. INDIA has stopped it. Hail the Constitution.”
“We are in support of reservation for women, but we drew a Lakshman Rekha that they could not cross,” he added.
The Constitution Amendment Bill proposed increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats from the current 543 to a maximum of 850 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law ahead of the 2029 parliamentary elections, after a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. It also envisaged a rise in seats in state and Union Territory assemblies to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women.
