Congress seeks all-party meet before delimitation Bill is brought back

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over reports that the Government is now planning to reintroduce a Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals.

In his letter to the PM, Kharge wrote that between March and April, he had written to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, requesting that the Union Government convene an all-party meeting to discuss its proposals regarding delimitation, etc.

“Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3 majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April, 2026 by a clear margin. I have been reading in media reports that the Union Government now proposes to reintroduce a revised (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. I would, once again, request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the Government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc, and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament,” Kharge said.

The Congress chief’s letter comes days after it emerged that the Government is working on multiple formulations to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all States by 50 per cent to assuage the concerns of southern States, as it seeks to operationalise a fresh draft of the Constitution amendment bill on women’s quota.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders, including party chief Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders, deliberated on key issues to be taken up during the upcoming Session at a meeting at the residence of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Among other Congress leaders who attended the key strategy meeting at Sonia’s residence on Thursday included AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Congress’ chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram, K Suresh, Naseer Hussain, Manickam Tagore, Kumari Selja, Tariq Anwar, Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, among others.

The party said it will corner the Government on critical issues such as the alleged theft of donations from the Ram temple and systemic corrosion of the education system during the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. The party asserted that it will strongly oppose Constitutional amendment Bills related to delimitation and dismissal of ministers and chief ministers during the session beginning July 20.

As of now, the ruling NDA has around 300 MPs in the Lok Sabha with three vacancies. It needs 360 votes to achieve the two-thirds mark. Under the current law, reservation for women would not be enforceable before 2034, as the process is tied to the completion of the delimitation exercise post the 2027 Census.

To implement it from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, changes were needed in the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, or women’s reservation law. According to the Government’s plan, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to operationalise the women’s quota law before the 2029 parliamentary polls following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published census.

Govt lists key Bills

New Delhi: The Union Government has listed two key Bills for passage in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session from July 20. One seeks to make insulting or obstructing the singing of Vande Mataram a punishable offence, while the other proposes stricter norms for delayed birth and death registration. The FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026, is also slated for consideration.