INDIA Bloc Slams Centre, Questions Timing Of Delimitation Bill In Extended Session
The bloc said as there was consensus over women’s reservation, increase in Lok Sabha seats, could have waited till next monsoon session in July.
Published : April 14, 2026 at 7:36 PM IST
|Updated : April 14, 2026 at 8:46 PM IST
New Delhi: Two days ahead of the extended Budget session of Parliament from April 16 to 18, the INDIA bloc lawmakers questioned the timing of the government bills that seek to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850.
According to sources, the government plans to move three bills, the Constitution Amendment bill, the Delimitation bill and the Union Territories Laws bill during the extended Budget session to effect the changes that will pave the way for increasing the Lok Sabha seats.
Out of the 850, 815 MPs will be directly elected from the states and 35 from the Union Territories in a manner to be determined by the Parliament. The population count for the purpose will be ascertained as such by the Parliament.
The issue of increasing the Lok Sabha seats is linked to reserving 33 per cent seats in the lower house and in state assemblies for women as per the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which was passed by the Parliament in 2023.
Over the past weeks, the opposition accused the government of playing politics as Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the women’s reservation issue as historic and decided to hold a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders on April 15 to firm up a united view before the extended Budget session.
The opposition wondered why the Centre had not shared the bills with the lawmakers yet, as they would have to take part in the debate during the extended Budget session.
As details of the proposed bills emerged on Tuesday, the opposition MPs said their charge all along had been confirmed. The opposition lawmakers argued that, as there was a consensus over giving 33 per cent reservation to women, the increase in Lok Sabha seats could have been done either in 2023 itself or the matter could have waited till the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled in July.
"That is the problem with the BJP. They do everything with elections in mind. The women’s reservation bill has already been passed. They could have brought the bill to increase Lok Sabha seats during the Budget session, which was first announced till April 2 if the issue was so urgent, or they could have waited till the Monsoon session to be held in July," Congress Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Jawed told ETV Bharat.
"They ignored our suggestion for an all-party meeting over the issue and went ahead with the extended session as they wanted to get political mileage in the Tamil Nadu and West Bengal elections,” added Jawed.
Over the past weeks, the opposition targeted the Centre, which had announced an extended session without specifying the legislative agenda for it. This made the opposition suspect that the government was talking about the women’s reservation issue but wanted to push the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats and assemblies secretly, without holding detailed consultations with the stakeholders over the matter.
In 2023, when the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed, the government had said that it would be implemented from 2029 Lok Sabha polls only after completion of a fresh Census and delimitation of Lok Sabha seats.
According to the opposition lawmakers, the government probably wanted to delink the women’s quota issue from a fresh census and may go ahead on the basis of the 2011 census data.
"Earlier, the delimitation of seats happened on the basis of population. It was done by the delimitation commission. What the government wants to do now, we have no idea," Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Jawed Ali Khan told ETV Bharat.
"It is a political bill, and there will be a lot of political speeches from the BJP during the three-day extended session. These amendments could have been brought later also," Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha told ETV Bharat.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will be held on April 23. Elections in West Bengal will be held on April 23 and 29, respectively. Elections in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry were held on April 9. All results will be out on May 4.
According to TMC Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad, almost all opposition MPs from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were busy campaigning in their respective states, and their schedules will be disturbed by the special session in the peak of election season.
"I am busy campaigning for my party in the state, but I would have to attend the session. The BJP has little presence in the two states, but the opposition MPs are busy. They will certainly be disturbed as these elections are important. The proposed changes could have been done later as well," Azad told ETV Bharat.
"The BJP is trying hard but will not succeed in West Bengal through such moves," he said. The Congress, which leads the INDIA bloc, held a meeting of its Working Committee on April 10 to firm up a strategy for the special session. The party will further fine-tune its strategy after discussing the matter with the bloc leaders on Wednesday, said party insiders.
"Our leader had urged the Centre to roll out the women’s reservation bill from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the BJP did not agree. We would like to know why," said Jawed.
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