Gurugram: The Haryana assembly was not supposed to meet this week. But during a Cabinet meeting in Gurugram last week, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had called for a special one-day session.
Even though nothing was specifically mentioned, every member knew the Monday session was for debating “women’s reservation” and condemning the Congress-led INDIA bloc for voting down the Constitution amendment bill in the Lok Sabha last month.
The bill had tied the 33 percent reservation for women to the post-delimitation increase in the House’s strength from 543 to 816 seats.
On Monday, however, there had been two fresh developments by the time Speaker Harvindar Kalyan had adjourned the House sine die. Firstly, the Congress conducted a rival session in the assembly’s parking lot. Secondly, three of its own suspended MLAs walked into the actual session, where a censure motion was passed against their party.
Why Congress stayed out
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda told reporters outside that the Saini government wanted to discuss matters outside the assembly’s jurisdiction.
He said Parliament had already passed the women’s reservation bill, with the Congress’s support, in 2023. The question of its implementation, now, is a matter for the central government, not the state legislature, he added.
He also said that no copy of the resolution had been shared with the Opposition before the session. “We cannot allow the use of the Vidhan Sabha platform for the political ploys of the BJP,” Hooda said.
“The assembly is a place to discuss matters of public interest, not to carry out the directions of any political party. Public money is involved in running the House, and it should not be wasted on any party’s programme.”
He highlighted that the Centre did not formally notify the reservation bill for women—unanimously passed in September 2023—until 16 April 2026, after a delay of thirty months.
“It shows that the BJP’s intent is not to give reservations to women,” he said. “If their intent was genuine, they would not have delayed it.”
On the defeated bill, which triggered Monday’s special session, Hooda argued that the government had gone about it entirely the wrong way.
A constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds majority. “If they wanted to bring an amendment, they should have first called an all-party meeting and consulted the Opposition. Without that, there was no way it was going to pass,” said Hooda. “The delay (in notifying women’s reservation) and then this rushed amendment, what else can it mean?”
The Congress held its own proceedings outside the assembly building, with its MLAs playing both the Treasury and Opposition roles.
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What BJP made of the session
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini did not miss the opportunity to attack the Congress.
“Those whose tyres go flat are usually found in the parking lot,” he said from the floor of the House. “The people sent these MLAs here to debate. They are standing in the parking lot, fighting with shadows.”
He argued that the women’s reservation resolution was not a political document but a statement of collective commitment to women’s rights. He said that Congress could have attended, disagreed, and said the same from within the House. Their choice to stay out, he added, was proof of an “anti-women mindset”.
He moved a censure motion against Congress for the boycott. It passed unanimously, with INLD’s Aditya Chautala and Arjun Chautala among those present in the Opposition benches.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mahipal Dhanda said Congress was ashamed to show its face inside, as it knew it had done wrong by voting against the bill.
Cabinet minister Krishan Bedi said Congress members had faced questions from women in their families about opposing the bill.
The resolution that Saini moved stated that a region or society could not be considered developed until women had equal rights and opportunities. It called the INDIA bloc’s vote against the Constitution amendment bill a “dark shadow” cast over a noble endeavour.
The complication
Of the five Congress MLAs suspended earlier for voting against the party’s candidate in the 16 March Rajya Sabha elections, two stayed away from it all. Meanwhile, three—Shaily Chaudhary, Renu Bala, and Jarnail Singh—attended the House session, instead of Hooda’s meeting.
Shaily Chaudhary and Renu Bala left after some time, telling reporters that they were being deliberately targeted. Only Jarnail Singh stayed.
“They (Congress) should have come into the House and discussed the bill. What they are doing outside is not appropriate,” Singh said from the floor of the House. “If a bill benefits women, it should not be opposed.”
Saini immediately seized on this. “Congress’s own MLAs are saying the party needs to change its thinking…. Hooda sahib must be worried that more MLAs might start feeling the same way. That is why we are now bringing a censure motion.”
Outside, Hooda said that the suspended MLAs should give up their assembly seats. “They have betrayed the public. Now they are betraying the party.”
The Congress and its allies had opposed the bill on the grounds that the BJP’s real agenda was to conduct delimitation before a caste census. The bill, according to the Opposition, was for the BJP to score electoral advantages before reservations took effect.
Also on Monday, the Haryana Clerical Services (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Bill, 2026, was passed during the session. The law increased the promotion quota for clerical staff with over five years of service to 30 percent. Earlier, it was 20 percent.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)