Reuters
A key government bill in India aimed at expanding parliamentary representation and accelerating the implementation of women’s seat reservations has failed to pass, marking a rare legislative setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The proposed legislation sought to significantly increase the number of seats in the lower house of parliament while advancing a long-discussed plan to reserve one-third of those seats for women. However, opposition parties raised strong objections, arguing that linking women’s quotas to a large-scale redrawing of constituency boundaries could allow the government to manipulate electoral outcomes.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the move, claiming the government had used “an unconstitutional trick” under the guise of promoting women’s representation. In contrast, Home Minister Amit Shah defended the bill, accusing the opposition of blocking progress on gender inclusion and warning that the country’s women would not forget the resistance.
The government maintained that updating constituency boundaries was necessary to reflect population changes since the last major delimitation exercise based on the 1971 census. The bill proposed expanding the lower house by about 55%, raising the number of lawmakers to approximately 850 by the 2029 general elections, alongside similar increases in state assemblies.
Despite these arguments, the bill fell short of the required two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments. In the lower house vote, 298 lawmakers supported the bill while 230 opposed it.
Although legislation passed in 2023 had already approved reserving one-third of parliamentary seats for women, its implementation was tied to the completion of the next national census—still ongoing—effectively delaying enforcement beyond the 2029 elections.
Currently, India does not have reserved seats for women in parliament. Women make up about 14% of members in the lower house and 17% in the upper house, while representation in state legislatures stands at roughly 10%.
