NEW DELHI: A war of words broke out between the Congress and the BJP on Saturday over the women’s quota and delimitation Bills after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said that no country can be successful if its women do not express themselves. This led Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to call it a “visible change of heart” and express the hope that the Opposition party will support the proposed legislation.
Hitting back, Gandhi wrote on X, “The women’s reservation Bill has already been passed and the government is blocking its implementation with the delimitation rider. Mr Rijiju, who would know better than you, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 has already been passed unanimously, with the full support of the Congress.” He added, “The question is why it has still not been implemented even after three years, and why do you now want to unnecessarily link it to delimitation?” He then called for the implementation of the 2023 law without conditions.
Responding to Gandhi, Rijju said the Congress leader knows “very well” that the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People and Legislative Assembly of the State is provided in the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023.
He said that Gandhi also knows that it shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken based on the census figures published after the year 2023, which means the census figures published after the year 2026.
“The exercise for publishing the census figures after the year 2026 is currently underway. However, this may take substantial time due to the caste-based census to be finally published. In view of this, it may result in considerable delay in the implementation of women’s reservation, at least not before the 2034 general elections,” he said.
Therefore, to implement the women’s reservation at the next general elections in 2029, the delimitation exercise needs to be undertaken at the earliest, based on the latest available census figures, as published, he added.
Rijiju said the implementation methodology has been proposed under the Delimitation Bill 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha along with the amendments to the Constitution.
However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced for this purpose, has been defeated, the minister said.