By Dr. Gyan Pathak
As the three-day Special Session of the Parliament of India – from April 16 to April 18, 2026 – approaches, it has become crystal clear that the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill 2026, which seeks to implement 33 per cent of the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly seats is nothing but a cover up for a greater political mischief to be played on the People of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, “Will be a gross injustice if delayed.”
It is clearly an afterthought of the Prime Minister which smells some greater political mischief, because it was his government that introduced the Nari Shakti Vandan (106th Amendment) Bill 2023 in the Parliament of India in a special session on September 19, 2023. On 20 September 2023, Lok Sabha passed the bill, while Rajya Sabha passed it on 21 September 2023. The way the Bill was passed – in Lok Sabha 454 votes in favour and two against, and in Rajya Sabha unanimously – shows that the women’s reservation is a settled issue. President Draupadi Murmu had given her assent on the Bill on September 12, and it became an act called Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.
The only controversy at that time was that Congress and other opposition parties had demanded immediate operationalisation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023, right from the Lok Sabha Election 2024, for which PM Narendra Modi led government was not ready. His government has attached its implementation to first delimitation after 2026, which was frozen by the 84th Constitutional Amendment Act in 2001. Modi government had effectively delayed the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam by a decade, and was expected to be implemented after 2034. The same PM Modi who got it delayed by about a decade at that time, now is saying that it will be a gross injustice if delayed.
It was clear that Modi government had no intention to implement the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, both during the Lok Sabha Election 2024 or 2029. Now government seems to be in a hurry and has called a special three day session from April 16 to get the amendment Bill passed. It had enough time during the Budget Session – from January 28 to April 2 – to table this amendment Bill, but it did not do.
Without any intention to implement the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023 it Modi government got the legislation passed in the Parliament to impress the women voters during the Lok Sabha Election 2024, but women were not impressed, and PM Modi’s BJP was reduced from majority to minority and got only 240 seats. Now, when the state assembly elections are underway, Modi government is trying the same trick to influence the voters, when model code of conduct for elections is in operation. No one can expect form Election Commission of India (ECI) to take any action against it because everybody now knows that ECI is working on the Modi government’s plan of which SIR is an example, and has already lost its autonomy though legal or extra-legal strategy of the government.
Let it be so, but why PM Modi says it would be injustice if the amendment bill is delayed? Why government seeks to pass it Pre-Census, against the original plan of Post-Census, especially at a time when Census is already underway, and the result is likely to be out by March 2027. Why can’t government wait for the latest data? Why the government insists it to be done on the old data of Census-2011? And most importantly why the current proposed amendment has been linked with the delimitation, if it is not a cover up for the delimitation? The 2001 Constitutional amendment says that delimitation should be based on the population data of the first Census to be done after 2026. Census is already underway, and why should PM Modi insist on the outdated data of Census-2011?
It is therefore clear that the sole intention of PM Modi led government is not to give 33 per cent reservation to women in the national and state legislature, but has several other considerations, the chief of which is the delimitation of the Lok Sabha constituencies before the 2029 Lok Sabha election. Modi government has also been planning to implement ‘One Nation One Election’ which will be advantage BJP being the richest and biggest political party as far as its organization and its parent organization RSS is concerned.
BJP has currently electoral dominance in the largest populated states in the country in the North India especially in the Hindi speaking states, apart from political dominance in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Delimitation would substantially increase the number of Lok Sabha seats in these states, which will be numerically advantage BJP that will ensure BJP’s political dominance in the entire county for a long time in the future. The urge of securing this political dominance is so high that it does not want to wait even for the Census-2027 which is underway. It wants to use the population data of 2021, though it would not reflect the current demographic reality of the country, and that will be disadvantage for the nation, and also for several states. All is being done under the cover of women’s reservation.
If the government will wait for the Census-2027 result, and delimitation to be done on the basis of that, Modi government has a fear that the process could not be completed before 2029 election, and they will perhaps not be able to establish their absolute political dominance. Therefore, they want to use the back data of Census-2011.
The political parties in opposition are not against the reservation for women, as it was shown when the Nari Shakti Vandan Bill was passed in the parliament in 2023, and also now in their statements supporting the women’s reservation. What they are opposing is the delimitation of the constituencies on the older data of Census 2011, and the government intention to increase the number of Lok Sabha seat from the current 543 to 850, which is seen not justified on several accounts.
The proposed amendment seeks to change Articles 55, 81, 82, 170, 330, 332, and 334A of the Constitution of India. It proposes increase of Lok Sabha seats from the states to 815, and from UTs to 35. Southern states, feel threatened, since it will distort the current political balance in the Lok Sabha, which will go against them. Therefore, they do not only want numeral justice, but also political justice, not to be permanently subjected to dominance of the North.
Congress and other political parties have therefore demanded implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam immediately, without linking it to delimitation process of future Census, for which Modi government is not ready.
The proposed amendment also seeks to change the definition of the population for seat allocation and boundary demarcation as per 1971 Census, on which the current seats are demarcated. Which census data should be used is currently established by the Constitutional amendment, but the current proposal seeks to do away with it, so that the government can change with simple resolution in the parliament passed with simple majority. Parliamentary seats are frozen since 1976 through constitutional amendments to keep the states’ interests intact, not only numerically but also politically in the parliament, but the current proposal seeks to remove it.
Some states and the non-BJP political parties are opposing such changes. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has given a stern warning of massive protests against delimitation, and the Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has called for a united southern front against the current proposal. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has accused BJP of trying to “redistribute political power. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has also strongly opposed the delimitation process, labelling it as “sword of Damocles” that punishes southern states, and it violates federal principle of the country. Congress has said that the damage will be enormous when intent is mischievous. The entire opposition is gearing up for joint opposition of the proposed constitutional amendment, which they say have numerous errors. (IPA Service)
