India’s parliament failed on Friday to secure the required two-thirds majority for a set of amendment bills that would have introduced a minimum quota for women in the national and state legislatures and expanded the Lok Sabha to more than 800 seats.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the measures in a special session that opened Thursday. The amendments aimed to bring forward the implementation of the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act — which guarantees a 33% quota for women in Parliament and state assemblies — from the 2029 general elections to an earlier date. The women’s quota was linked to a separate Delimitation Bill to redraw constituency boundaries based on the most recent population census.
A marathon 12-hour debate on Thursday saw heated exchanges between Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition parties. The NDA does not hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament and was seeking support from smaller parties and opposition groups for the bills. Friday’s vote fell short of the two-thirds mark.
Three bills were under consideration:
– The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, proposing to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to around 850 — about 815 from states and 35 from Union Territories.
– The Delimitation Bill, 2026, to establish a Delimitation Commission to reallocate seats in Parliament and state assemblies and redraw constituency boundaries based on the latest population census (the current seat composition is based on the 1971 census, with a freeze in place until the first census after 2026).
– The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to extend the one-third quota to legislative assemblies of Union Territories such as Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, and Puducherry.
While the idea of a women’s quota has broad cross-party appeal, opposition parties accused the government of using the measure as a political tactic to gain advantage ahead of the 2029 polls. Critics objected to linking the quota to a population-based delimitation exercise, arguing that redrawing seats could disproportionately benefit the BJP, which has a strong base in more populous northern states.
Leaders from India’s southern states voiced particular concern that delimitation based on population growth would shift political representation toward northern states, effectively penalizing southern states that achieved better population control and development. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi urged that the women’s quota should be implemented based on the current 543-seat Lok Sabha. Women currently make up about 14% of the lower house.
In Parliament, Modi framed the bills as a step to increase women’s participation in governance, saying they would bring half the population into policymaking and offer a new direction for the country. Home Minister Amit Shah presented figures intended to reassure legislators that southern states’ proportional representation would remain largely unchanged. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin rejected those assurances, calling the measure a “calculated deception.”
Separately, a law ministry notification showed the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, had come into force on Thursday. Officials and media described the move as a technical step to operationalize the proposed amendment being debated. Reports noted that although the law is in force, its provisions cannot be implemented immediately; the act stipulates reservation will take effect only after a fresh delimitation exercise based on the next census. Congress’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh criticized the timing, calling the notification “absolutely bizarre,” given that amendments to the act were still being debated and voted on.