New Delhi : The ruling BJP-led NDA government has kept the door open for introducing a redrafted 131st Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on July 20 (Monday). It has reached out to several current and former INDIA bloc constituents to muster support for the Bill, which had failed the Lok Sabha test in April.
The 131st Constitution Amendment Bill is a proposed legislative package designed to fast-track the implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies.
On Wednesday, Supriya Sule, the working president of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), or NCP (SP), rejected speculation of her party joining the NDA. In Mumbai, Sule said the INDIA bloc would formulate its stand only after the Centre placed a formal Bill before Parliament.
On the proposal to increase the number of seats of all states by 50 per cent, Sule said: “We had earlier demanded the formula in writing. We cannot comment without seeing the legislation.” She cautioned against any arbitrary delimitation exercise, saying constituency boundaries should be redrawn strictly according to established legal norms and not to suit any political party.
Earlier in the day, in his social media post, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the BJP, after it split the Trinamool Congress (TMC), is “reportedly wooing the NCP (SP) and DMK to garner the crucial votes to support the new version of the failed Bill”. He said the NCP (SP) and the DMK have been clear-headed about the real purpose of the failed Bill and it is expected that they will stand firm in the future too.
Sources in the NDA said that their interlocutors have spoken to several parties, including the NCP (SP), which has eight Lok Sabha MPs, DMK (22 MPs), YSRCP (four MPs), SP (37 MPs), and the JMM (three MPs). Sources in the Congress said that the INDIA bloc will meet on Sunday to decide its strategy for the monsoon session, but it remains united and steadfast in its opposition to the delimitation Bill.
Chidambaram said that the failed Bill purported to reserve for women one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies “but its real purpose was to pave the way for delimitation and, possibly, gerrymandering of constituencies”. He said that any support by the INDIA bloc and other parties to a new version of the failed Bill will be a betrayal of their own conscience that guided them in April 2026. He said delimitation of constituencies under the present formula will cause grave injustice to the rights of states that had faithfully followed the National Population Policy and contained the growth of population, and that states’ rights “must be fiercely guarded against the rampaging BJP”.
However, government sources have pointed out that the southern states will get a fair deal, with the redrafted Bill providing for a 50 per cent increase in LS seats of all states rather than making census figures as the benchmark. Since April 17, when the voting took place on the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha, the DMK has walked out of the INDIA bloc, while the TMC and Shiv Sena (UBT) have split.
Once Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla decides on the splits, the NDA’s numbers are set to increase in the lower House. Twenty of TMC’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs have joined the National Citizen Party of India, which has announced its support to the NDA, while six of Shiv Sena (UBT)’s nine LS MPs have split to join Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
