Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 27: The Congress on Thursday renewed its demand for an all-party meeting to discuss the proposed delimitation of the Parliamentary constituencies amidst the hints from the government of a possible special session of Parliament to push the bill through which is currently linked with 33 per cent reservation for women.
The Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost on the dotted line of his communication to the government on July 16 reiterating its demand for an all-party meeting with the party’s suggestion to freeze the Lok Sabha’s existing strength of 543 seats at least for the next 25 years. The Party also demanded introduction of one-third reservation for women from the 2029 elections.
In a letter to PM Modi, the Congress leader requested that the Centre share its proposals for delimitation with all political parties and state governments and give adequate time to study them. The letter was written citing Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju’s statement that a special session of Parliament could be convened to discuss delimitation act. The monsoon session of Parliament has only been adjourned sine die and is yet to be prorogued despite the session ending nearly a fortnight ago.
“I had last written to you on July 16, 2026, requesting you to convene an All-Party meeting for discussing the Government’s proposals for delimitation. I had also requested you to give all political parties adequate time to study such proposals in detail before they are introduced in any special session of Parliament,” Mr Kharge said in the letter on Thursday.
He reiterated the request and clarified on the party’s stance on the delimitation issue. It demanded the existing strength of the Lok Sabha be maintained at 543 seats and the existing State-wise strength in the Lok Sabha for another 25 years and the government introduce separately one-third reservation for women from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
“I am writing now to reiterate this request since the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs has publicly stated in a television interview last night that such a special session of Parliament could well be convened,” Kharge said. He said that this perhaps explains the continued delay in the prorogation of the Monsoon session.
Mr Kharge said the Congress was very clear that “Before you go ahead as indicated by the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, I wish to reiterate my earlier request to you to — convene an all-party meeting to discuss whatever delimitation proposals you have in mind; give all political parties and state governments adequate time to study such proposals,” the Congress chief said, adding that this is an issue that has enormous significance for the country. “Please do not again try and bulldoze as you attempted on April 16 and 17, 2026,” Kharge said in his letter to Modi.
The Congress has made the demands for freezing the Lok Sabha strength and implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women earlier as well.
In a resolution passed earlier this month, the Congress Working Committee had reiterated its commitment to the two demands. The opposition party had termed “drama” the PM’s appeal to opposition parties to support the delimitation-linked bill for implementing women’s reservation, and alleged that his single-point agenda was “Modi preservation, not women’s reservation.”
During the Budget session on April 17, the Modi government faced a setback as the Constitution amendment bill, involving delimitation, for the implementation of the women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was defeated in the Lower House.
When the bill was previously introduced, it received 298 votes, with four members of Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP, one member of the Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), and one independent MP backing it, while 230 opposed it. However, it would require 360 votes for passage if all 540 members are present in the House while voting.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP is seeking a two-thirds majority for the Delimitation Bill’s passage, which would increase the Lok Sabha seats to 816 from 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law.
As of now, the NDA has 319 members in the Lok Sabha after seven Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs merged with the Eknath Shinde faction and with the support of 20 legislators of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), the rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs. The DMK has 22 Lok Sabha members, and their support would increase the NDA’s strength to 341. It is widely speculated that 8 MPs of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) could also back the bill though the party is yet to make its stand on the issue clear. And if the YSRCP and the ZPM back the bill again, the NDA’s strength would rise to 354 (minus the Speaker), and could still fall short of the target unless some members abstained.