The bill to amend the Women's Reservation Bill failed to clear a key hurdle after the Centre could not secure the votes needed for its passage in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Centre needed a two-thirds majority to get the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, passed, but fell short of the mark. The proposed legislation saw 298 MPs voting in its favour and 230 voting against.
Two other bills, including one for delimitation and increasing the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, were not put to vote after the first one failed, with the Centre saying they were "intrinsically linked" to the legislation related to women's reservation.
The Lok Sabha debate, which went on past midnight on Thursday and continued on Friday, saw the Centre making a forceful pitch for the reservation of 33% of seats in the Lower House of Parliament and state assemblies for women.
Leading the charge for the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to allay a key fear of the Opposition parties and said he was personally guaranteeing that no injustice would be done to the southern states with the increase in seats in the Lok Sabha.
"Let all of us not miss this important opportunity to give reservation to women. I have come to appeal to you - do not see this from a political lens, this is in national interest," PM Modi said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah also assured the House on both days that the current representation of southern states would be preserved, or increase slightly, once the seats in the Lok Sabha were increased from the current 543 to roughly 816.
Both PM Modi and Shah also accused the Congress and other opposition parties of manufacturing issues to oppose the bill and deprive women of reservation. These parties, the BJP leaders said, would have to pay a price at the hustings for blocking the bill.
Opposition's Take
Opposing the linking of the bill with delimitation, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said the government was using the issue of women's reservation as a smokescreen and was actually attempting to redraw the country's electoral map in its favour. "This is not a women's bill as it has nothing to do with empowerment of women. This bill is an attempt to change the country's electoral map, using and hiding behind India's women," he alleged.Gandhi also claimed that the government was attempting to bypass the caste census. "They are trying to avoid giving power and representation to my OBC brothers and sisters, and instead take power away from them," he said.
Reactions
After the legislation failed to clear the Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the two other bills were "intrinsically interrelated" with it.
"It is a matter of regret that the Opposition did not support such a historic and important bill meant to give respect and representation to the people of the country. You had an opportunity and you squandered it. The Modi government's efforts and struggle to give rights to women will continue," he said.
BJP MPs also protested in the Parliament complex.
Home Minister Shah said the Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, and Samajwadi Party did not allow the passage of the bill and termed their "celebration" of this "reprehensible".
"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 done this not for the first time, but repeatedly. Their mindset is neither in the interest of women nor of the country," he posted on X.
"I want to tell them that this insult to Nari Shakti will not stop here; it will travel far and wide. The opposition will have to face the wrath of women not only in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, but at every level, in every election," he added.Speaking to reporters, Rahul Gandhi reiterated that the legislation was an attack on the Constitution."As I said in the House, this bill was an attack on the Constitution, and we are glad that we have defeated it. This was not a Women's Reservation Bill, but an attempt to change the electoral map of India. I want to tell the Prime Minister that if the government wants to implement the bill on women's quota that was passed in 2023, the opposition will support it 100%," he asserted.Gandhi also took to X minutes later and called the Centre's plan an "unconstitutional trick" that failed because the opposition INDIA alliance stayed united.
"Bharat has seen it. INDIA has stopped it," he wrote.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, who had also spoken forcefully against linking the reservation bill with delimitation, said, "We can never agree to linking women's reservation with delimitation based on an old Census that does not include the Other Backward Classes. It was not possible for this bill to be passed, and I believe this is a big victory for our democracy and the unity of our country."
Sources told that Rahul Gandhi called Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and thanked him for playing a crucial role in defeating the bill.
The call is significant because while the Congress and the Trinamool are part of the INDIA alliance at the national level, the parties are contesting against each other in the West Bengal Assembly elections, voting for which will take place on April 23 and 29.