Twelve MPs, 4 parliamentary panels selected for Sansad Ratna Awards 2025
New Delhi: The government again indicated that it was serious on bringing the controvercial Delimitation Bill, which was defeated in the last session by a united Opposition, while the Congress reiterated its firm opposition to the proposed Delimitation legislation.
Sources said that the government plans to table the controvercial Delimitation Bill next week before the current Monsoon session concludes on July 13, 2026.The government miserably failed to push the 131st Constitutional Amendment (Delimitation) Bill in the last session since it lacked the required two-thirds majority.
The Centre has been seeking to pass the Constitutional amendment required to operationalise the 2023 Women's Reservation Bill by increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 534 seats up to 850 through a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
The Bill had been defeated by united Opposition in last April during the Budget session. The BJP now believes it can muster the required two-thirds majority following the defections from the Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar) and others.
While the government remains hopeful of securing the two-thirds majority required to pass the Delimitation Bill, insiders said the top leadership was still not fully confident, with the DMK emerging as a crucial factor. The DMK has 22 members in the Lok Sabha and eight in the Rajya Sabha, which makes it a huge number.
Government sources claimed the DMK leadership had intially
shown signs of supporting the legislation but now appeared to have reconsider its position. The worst scenario, the NDA government expects,is atleast DMK abstain from voting if not support the bill.
With the effective strength of the Lok Sabha at 540, the government requires 360 votes to secure the constitutional amedment and cannot reach that mark without support from a substantial section of the Oppsoiton MPs.
Sources said that if the leadership remained uncertain about the numbers, it might still introduce the bill and refer it to a joint parliamentary committee for scrutiny.
