Delimitation, SIR, ONOE Meant To Benefit BJP, Congress Will Fight Them: CWC Members

New Delhi: The "unfair" delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, the "controversial" Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in states and the "vexed" One Nation, One Election (ONOE) issue were all "coordinated efforts" to ensure BJP's dominance in the country’s politics, Congress Working Committee (CWC) members noted on Sunday and said the grand old party will continue to fight against this "subversion of democracy".

The CWC members noted that the party’s fight to save the Constitution was far from over although the Congress-led Opposition had been successful in defeating the Centre’s latest move to push a delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in the garb of implementing 33 percent quota for women in the Lower House of the Parliament and in state Assemblies as per the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam passed in 2023.

The Opposition INDIA bloc unitedly defeated the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill that was linked to increasing the Lok Sabha strength from 543 to 850 by 2029 in the Lok Sabha on April 17. The Constitution Amendment Bill was also linked to delimitation of the existing parliamentary constituencies on the basis of the 2011 Census and would have used a flat 50 percent increase in the seats each state held in Lok Sabha. The 50 percent increase had been suggested by the government verbally and was not mentioned in the Constitution Amendment Bill, the Opposition alleged.

Miffed over the defeat of the bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Opposition for "ditching" the women of the country. The Opposition hit back asking why the government waited for three years to implement the law passed in 2023 and urged the PM to implement the legislation now by reserving 33 percent of 543 Lok Sabha seats.

The Opposition further alleged that the Centre had brought the Constitution Amendment Bill knowing well it lacked two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha needed to pass the legislation and said the saffron party only wanted to take political credit over the issue.

The BJP, on the other hand, has said it will launch a drive to expose the Opposition, which too has started a campaign to demand implementation of women’s quota as soon as possible.

CWC member BK Hari Prasad said that delimitation, SIR of voter lists in states, and the one nation, one election policies of the BJP, all aimed at ensuring the saffron party’s dominance in the country’s politics.

“Issues like delimitation, SIR, and one nation, one election are not isolated reforms. They are coordinated moves to change the electoral battlefield, weaken fair representation and engineer a system of permanent political dominance of the BJP in the country’s politics. All political parties saw through the game and strongly opposed the move,” Hari Prasad told ETV Bharat.

“The united stand of the Opposition was a victory of the organised struggle to save the Constitution. This struggle is far from over. It is a continuing clash of ideologies both within and outside parliament. In the struggle to preserve democratic values, the role of the Congress-led Opposition and LoP Rahul Gandhi will be decisive in the future,” he said.

The CWC member said SIR had led to removal of lakhs of names from voters' list and was conducted in a manner that took away the voting rights of voters who just kept running from pillar to posts to get objections filed.

“We have seen large-scale exclusion of the voters who took part in the 2024 national elections. What sort of a revision is this? Our leader exposed vote theft in several states but there was no action. We will continue to raise our voices against the SIR,” he said.

“The one nation one election sounds a tall order when the current round of polls in four states and one UT could not be held together on a single date,” he said.

Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry were held on April 9. Tamil Nadu polls will be held on April 23. Elections in West Bengal are scheduled for April 23 and 29. Results of all these polls will be out on May 4, 2026.

Sharing his views, CWC member Jitendra Singh said the grand old party’s fight to protect democracy will continue as part of Rahul Gandhi’s 'Save Constitution' campaign.

“There is no doubt that delimitation, SIR and one nation one election are all aimed to ensure BJP’s dominance in the country’s politics. They want to prepare a system that will benefit them and weaken the Opposition. Our leader is fighting against such moves. We will continue to oppose such plans,” Singh told ETV Bharat.

The CWC member, who is also the AICC incharge of Assam, said the recent special revision of north eastern state’s voter list and before that a delimitation of assembly seats had thrown up several questions and was done in a manner to benefit the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“The Special Revision in Assam was even worse than the SIR. It was clearly designed to hit the Opposition and benefit the BJP. The state experiment would have been implemented across the country if the delimitation bill had not been defeated. BJP was pushing the Constitution Amendment Bill for that purpose only,” said Singh.

The CWC member further criticised PM Modi's jibe at the Congress-led Opposition, saying an address to the nation was used like an opportunity to hurl false charges at the rivals.

“The PM mostly talked about the Congress. Such false allegations and counter-allegations could have been made in a political rally. What was the need to misuse the name of an official address? There are so many issues like the LPG crisis, inflation, joblessness on which the PM should speak to the nation,” said Singh.

“In the name of women's reservation, the BJP hatched a conspiracy and betrayed half the country's population. It was the Congress which gave reservation to the country's women in panchayats and municipal bodies. It will be the Congress that will grant their rights in Parliament and Assemblies too,” he added.