By Staff Reporter
New Delhi: April 19, 2026
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which sought to operationalize 33% reservation for women in Parliament by expanding the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and redrawing constituencies, failed to clear the Lok Sabha on Friday after falling short of the required two-thirds majority. The defeat marks the first time since 2014 that a bill introduced by the Narendra Modi government has been voted down.
In the division held late Friday, 298 MPs voted in favour and 230 against, well below the 352 votes needed out of 528 members present and voting. The Bill required constitutional amendment and thus a special majority. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi were present during the vote.
The legislation proposed seven constitutional changes to implement women’s reservation from the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, contingent on a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. It also envisaged a corresponding increase in seats in State and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate the 33% quota. The Lok Sabha strength would have risen by about 55%, from 543 to 850.
Debate ran for nearly 12 hours, stretching past midnight Thursday into Friday, with proceedings extended till 1 AM. The government argued the constituency changes were needed to reflect population shifts since seats were last fixed after the 1971 Census. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Home Minister Amit Shah moved the Bill along with the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
Opposition parties said they backed women’s reservation but opposed linking it to delimitation, alleging it was a “government bid to manipulate the system and get more votes”. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X: “The amendment bill has fallen. They used an unconstitutional trick in the name of women to break the Constitution”. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi warned that “the north will rule over the south” as states with larger populations would gain more seats.
Defending the Bill, Amit Shah blamed Congress, TMC, DMK and Samajwadi Party for blocking it, calling the opposition’s reaction “condemnable”. “Now, the women of the country will not get the 33% reservation… which was their right. The Congress and its allies have done this repeatedly,” he said in the House. He added that “the women of this country will not forgive you”.
Prime Minister Modi told his cabinet after the vote that the opposition had “committed a mistake” and would face consequences. Sources quoted him saying: “They have let down the women of the country. This message must be taken to every single person, to every single village”. In the House a day earlier, Modi had called the Bill a chance to be “free from sin” for decades of delay, urging MPs not to see it “from a political lens”.
The defeat does not repeal the 33% reservation law passed in 2023, which was notified on Thursday. However, that law remains tied to the next Census and subsequent delimitation, which would have been advanced by Friday’s Bill. Without the new amendment, implementation is deferred until after the Census still underway and a future delimitation exercise.
India currently has no seats reserved for women in Parliament. Women constitute only 14% of the Lok Sabha and 17% of the Rajya Sabha, and about 10% of lawmakers in state legislatures. The NDA lacks a two-thirds majority in either House, making opposition support critical for constitutional amendments.
With the Bill’s failure, the special session that began Thursday ended Friday without passage of the government’s flagship proposal. The government said it will continue to campaign for women’s quotas, while the opposition maintained its support for reservation but not the delimitation linkage. A crucial vote that was set for 4 PM Friday concluded with the Bill’s defeat, setting up further political confrontation ahead of 2029.
Edited By: Kimbawinu Vaiphei
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