TheConstitution Amendment Billto tweak women reservation law and increase the number of seats of theLok Sabhafor 2029 General Election was defeated after division of votes in the Lower House on Friday. The bill was defeated after 298 members voted in support while 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority. According to the Constitution Amendment Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. Seats were also to be increased in states and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
The government in total had tabled three bills on Thursday that marked the commencement of the three day special extension of the Parliament's Budget Session. These bills were -- the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law, the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women's quota act in Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
Now that the Constitution Amendment Bill to tweak the Women Reservation Act has failed to pass the Lok Sabha test as the government did not succeed in managing the numbers, the Centre is not likely to go ahead with the other two bills including - the Delimitation Bill, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill.
The other two bills would be needed to implement the women reservation if the government had managed to pass the Constitutional Amendment.
Blaming the Opposition after Constitutional Amendment Bill failed to pass in Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah took to X and said, "Today, a very strange scene was witnessed in the Lok Sabha. The Congress, TMC, DMK, and Samajwadi Party did not allow the passage of the necessary Constitution Amendment Bill for the Nari Shakti Vandan Act. Rejecting the bill that would give women 33% reservation, celebrating it, and raising victory slogans is truly reprehensible and beyond imagination."
"Now, the women of the country will not get the 33% reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, which was their right. The Congress and its allies have not done this for the first time, but have done it repeatedly. Their mindset is neither in the interest of women nor of the country. I want to tell them that this insult to Nari Shakti will not stop here; it will go far. The opposition will have to face the 'anger of women' not only in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, but at every level, every election, and every place," the Home Minister said.
On Thursday, the government introduced three Bills after a fiery 40-minute debate following which the opposition pressed for the division of votes to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill.
The Bill was later introduced with 251 members supporting it and 185 members voting against the introduction. Congress' KC Venugopal questioned why the proposed changes in the women's quota law were not incorporated when it was passed earlier by Parliament.
"Bills to tweak the women's quota law and set up a delimitation panel are anti-constitutional," he said. Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav questioned the rush to introduce the bills.
"We support women's quota in legislature but why not hold a census?" he asked.
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