Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Tuesday accused the Union government of planning a constitutional amendment linked to the women’s quota law with the "political objective" of shaping delimitation in a way that benefits the BJP ahead of the 2029 general election.
He urged opposition MPs to reject any such proposal outright.
Sibal also said that if the government was serious about implementing 33% reservation for women, it should introduce a bill to provide quotas within the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats.
"The BJP does not do anything without a political objective. They would not bring a bill until it politically benefits them. The 106th Constitution Amendment Bill introduced 334-A which states that the women's reservation law would be implemented after 2026 following the Census and delimitation," Sibal said, adding that this was unanimously passed in Parliament.
"Now they have decided to amend that. They are not saying what change they want. They decided in 2023 that it would be done after Census and delimitation. Now they say that they want it changed," the Independent Rajya Sabha MP said.
Questioning the timing of the move, Sibal claimed that it was targeted at the West Bengal polls. The government has called a special sitting of Parliament on April 16, 17 and 18 amid the polls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, he said.
"TMC and other parties' MPs will campaign there or come here? What would have happened if this were to be taken up after the 29th. The BJP does nothing unless they know they have a political advantage in the process," Sibal said.
He alleged that the BJP is doing all this with the "political objective" of winning the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
"They know that they have no chance of winning the West Bengal elections so they want to disturb the elections. When women's law would be passed they would say 'we had promised earlier but we are delivering now'. If they are really concerned about women's reservation, they should say, and all opposition should agree, that women's reservation would be provided on the existing 543 seats in Parliament," the former Union minister said.
"You will not do that because that is not their objective," he said, slamming the BJP.
Giving an example of how the move would benefit the BJP, Sibal said the reported proposal for delimitation is to increase seats in Lok Sabha for every state by 50 per cent.
"So for Uttar Pradesh which has 80 seats, the number would go to 120, while for Tamil Nadu, which has 39 seats, the figure would climb to only 59. In real terms the difference which was 41 would now be 61 seats," Sibal said.
"In the northern belt, the BJP had won 127 out of 238 seats and in southern India they have won 29 out of 130. So they want to increase seats and get a larger share in the northern belt. Difference would give them a political advantage," Sibal claimed.
He said the BJP would have de facto power to turn delimitation to their advantage through "pocket vetoes."
"The Chairman of the delimitation commission would be a pocket veto. We have seen what happened in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. They (BJP) will decide which constituencies will benefit them, they will work for their own benefit through the delimitation Commission," he alleged.
"They are taking the census of 2011 but if the census is being done now, why the need for this bill. The registrar general has said the data will come by 2027. So they can bring that bill then," Sibal said They want to do a delimitation through "pocket veto" and win the 2029 election, he claimed.
"No opposition member of Parliament should accept this. They require a two-thirds majority and we should reject it because they are playing politics with the future of India and destroying the federal structure of India," Sibal said.
No member of the Opposition in Parliament should allow it, he asserted.
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 Reservation Act, will be brought for its implementation in 2029.
While elections in Puducherry, Assam and Kerala were held on April 9, polls in West Bengal would be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29.
In Tamil Nadu, polls will be held in a single phase on April 23.
