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Informist, Friday, Apr. 17, 2026

 

--Lok Sabha votes against delimitation bill 

--Delimitation bill gets 278 votes in favour in Lok Sabha 

--CONTEXT: Constitutional amendment bill on delimitation falls by 48 votes 

 

NEW DELHI – The government Friday failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed in the Lok Sabha to pass The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill. The bill was to pave the way for an 850-member Lok Sabha and expanded state legislative assemblies and the implementation of reservation for women from the next general election, due in 2029.

 

Following the defeat, the government withdrew The Delimitation Bill, 2026, and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026. The Delimitation Bill was to enable the redrawing of Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies. The second bill was to align electoral and administrative provisions in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi with the changes proposed under the women's reservation and delimitation-related legislation.

 

Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal had initiated the debate on the government's proposals by presenting the Constitution amendment and the delimitation bills Thursday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had then introduced the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill.

 

Voting on the Constitution amendment took place Friday. While 278 of the 489 members present and voting approved the bill, 211 members voted against it. The bill had proposed a significant expansion of the Lok Sabha from the current 545 members and sought to implement reservation for women in legislatures from the 2029 general election. The Delimitation Bill provided for redrawing of Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies. For the Lok Sabha, the delimitation was to be done on the basis of the 2011 Census.

 

Opposition parties such as the Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party, All India Trinamool Congress, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam strongly criticised the bills. Speaking in the House Friday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi charged the government with trying to use women's reservation as a front to push through delimitation and increase seats in the Lok Sabha. He called it "an attempt to change India's electoral map".

 

Opposition leaders from the southern states were particularly irked by the population-based redrawing of constituencies, fearing that their success in controlling population growth would have the perverse effect of reducing their political representation in Parliament. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor even told reporters Thursday that the government's plan was to re-delimit constituencies to increase the number of seats in areas where the ruling party is strong and it was using women's reservation as a pretext to bring about that change by trying to amend the law they themselves had passed just three years ago.

 

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav had questioned the urgency for introducing the bills at this stage. "Why is the Centre rushing for women's reservation?" he had said Thursday. "Start with the census first." He said his party supports women's reservation in principle but opposes its implementation through delimitation.

 

Meghwal, while introducing the bills, had said 272 seats in the expanded House of the People would be reserved for women. Responding to Yadav on why the census was not being conducted, Shah had pointed out that the process for the census had begun and enumeration was being carried out with caste data.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the issue of women's reservation "should not be evaluated from a political lens". "I want to say responsibly today that this will not discriminate against anyone. This decision process will not be unfair to anyone. The government that was in power earlier, the delimitation of the seats, and the ratio that has been in place since then, will remain unchanged."  End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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