New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said a united opposition has defeated the BJP-led government’s “nefarious attempt” to carry out delimitation by using half of India’s population as a shield to harm the country’s democracy.
“Modi-Shah tried to carry out delimitation by using half of the country’s population as a shield and made a nefarious attempt to harm this country’s democracy, Constitution and federalism,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
“Their cunning ploy was sniffed out by a united opposition — INDIA — and the Constitution amendment bill was defeated. We express heartfelt thanks to all the leaders of the opposition parties,” the Congress president said.
The comments came soon after a Constitution amendment bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha as it failed to secure a two-thirds majority in the House.
“Modi-Shah had set out to destroy India’s democracy just to polish their politics, but this conspiracy of theirs has now fallen flat on its face,” Kharge said, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“We once again demand from the Modi government that, in accordance with the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ passed in 2023, 33 per cent reservation for women be implemented starting from the 2029 election.
“The Congress has been demanding this since September 2023. This will be the real test of the prime minister’s commitment to ‘Nari Shakti’,” the Congress chief said.
The Constitution amendment bill to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats was defeated in the Lower House of Parliament on Friday.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Of the 528 members who voted, the bill required the support of 352 for the two-thirds majority.
The bill had proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s-reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census data. PTI SKC RC
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