The opposition has "committed a mistake" by not supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures from 2029 and increase the strength of the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told his cabinet on Saturday, April 18.
"The opposition has committed a mistake by not supporting the bill," PM Modi said, according to sources. The opposition also knows that it is injustice done to women, he said.
"All the members of the NDA should ensure that they go to women and take the issue to grassroots level," he added.
The cabinet meeting was held a day after the Constitution Amendment Bill to implement reservation for women in legislatures from 2029 and increase the strength of the Lok Sabha was defeated in the Lower House. While 298 members voted in favour of the Bill, 230 voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for passage.
According to the 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 state and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
As the bill failed the Lok Sabha test, the BJP termed the development a “black day” and accused the Congress and other opposition parties of betraying women. Union minister Kiren Rijiju said the Congress and the Opposition will have to face the anger of women across the country and accused them of permanently "damaging their credibility".
“They will have to face the anger of the women of the country. This is a black stain on the Congress and its allies, one that they will never be able to erase. This Bill was about giving historic representation to women—what objection could there have been?” he told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Meanwhile, the Congress and its allies asserted that the quota law, passed in 2023, should be implemented immediately and accused the government of playing politics over it. Several Opposition leaders, including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, said the opposition is not against women’s reservation, but it was objecting to its linkage with delimitation.
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Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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