The opposition parties have decided to vote against the proposed Constitution amendment bill on delimitation, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said on Wednesday.
Top leaders of the opposition parties, except AAP, met at Kharge's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss strategy on the women’s reservation law and the proposed delimitation amendment, ahead of a special three-day sitting of the Parliament.
Kharge stressed that the opposition has always supported women's reservation in Parliament, but was concerned about the manner in which the bill is being brought.
"All of us are in favour of the women's reservation bill, but have reservations on the way in which it is being brought. It is politically motivated. Just to gag and suppress opposition parties, the government is doing this," Kharge said after the meeting.
"We are continuously supporting women's reservation. We are insisting that the earlier amendment that was passed be implemented. They (the BJP-led government) are playing tricks with delimitation. Therefore, all parties have taken a decision unitedly to oppose this bill," he added.
Leaders of the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD, CPI and CPI-M were present at the meeting.
Besides Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, the other leaders at the meeting included DMK's T R Baalu, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Trinamool's Sagarika Ghosh, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, and NCP-SCP's Spriya Sule, with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joining virtually.
CPI leader Annie Raja, CPI-M's Nilotpal Basu, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Independent MP Kapil Sibal, IUML's E T Mohammed Bashir and RSP's N K Premchandran also attended the meeting, other than Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh.
Jairam Ramesh said the manner in which the Delimitation Commission is functioning, "it is clear that it has become a tool to win majority for the ruling party."
"We are totally against the delimitation move. Women's reservation should be implemented, but we are totally against delimitation," he said.
Kharge had earlier in the day convened a meeting of Congress's parliamentary strategy group, where the leaders discussed both issues in detail after the government on Tuesday circulated bills related to the women’s quota law and delimitation among MPs.
Notably, the Congress has alleged that when the intent behind a bill is "mischievous" and its content "devious", the extent of damage to parliamentary democracy is enormous.
The Budget session of Parliament has been extended, and a special three-day sitting of the House has been convened from April 16 to 18, during which amendments to the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', more commonly known as the Women's Reservation Act, will be brought for its implementation in 2029.
The number of Lok Sabha seats will be increased to up to 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published census.
According to the draft Constitution amendment bill, which will be introduced in the upcoming special sitting of Parliament, seats would also be increased in the state and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
(With inputs from PTI)
