A Constitution Amendment Bill that sought to enable women’s reservation in legislatures alongside an increase in Lok Sabha seats was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday after it failed to secure the required two-thirds majority, triggering the withdrawal of two related Bills by the Union government.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was part of a wider legislative package linked to delimitation and electoral restructuring, received 298 votes in favor and 230 against. However, it fell short of the special majority required for constitutional amendments.
Following the defeat, the Union government announced that it would not proceed with the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, stating that the three Bills were interconnected and could not be considered in isolation, The Hindu reported.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju described the development as a “missed opportunity” to build consensus on what he termed a major institutional reform.
The legislative package was designed to enable a nationwide delimitation exercise after decades, expand the size of the Lok Sabha, and implement one-third reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies after the proposed restructuring, according to Bar and Bench.
The government argued that the exercise was necessary to address population shifts and correct imbalances in voter representation across States.
Home Minister Amit Shah, participating in the debate, said any imbalance in the ratio of voters to Members of Parliament could be corrected through delimitation. He also accused previous governments of delaying the exercise for decades.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, however, alleged that the Bill was not limited to women’s reservation and accused the government of attempting to redraw India’s electoral map in a manner that would reduce the representation of southern, northeastern and smaller States, calling it an “anti-democratic” move.
He said the proposal amounted to an attempt to alter the federal balance of the Constitution under the guise of electoral reform.
The House was subsequently adjourned for the day and is scheduled to meet again on Saturday.
The Bills had triggered a sharp political divide, with several opposition parties and regional leaders, particularly from southern States, expressing concern that delimitation based on updated population figures would reduce their proportional representation in Parliament.
They argued that linking women’s reservation to delimitation effectively delayed its implementation, while also altering the structure of political representation in favor of more populous States.
With the defeat of the constitutional amendment, the government’s broader plan to restructure India’s electoral framework has suffered a significant legislative setback.
The proposed reforms were also rooted in the constitutional provision for periodic readjustment of parliamentary constituencies following each Census. However, seat allocation has remained frozen since the 1971 Census through successive constitutional amendments, with the freeze extended until after the first Census conducted post-2026.
Under the proposed framework, the 131st Amendment would have expanded the strength of the Lok Sabha, removed the freeze on seat allocation, and enabled redistribution of seats based on updated Census data. The Delimitation Bill would have operationalized this through a Delimitation Commission tasked with redrawing constituencies.
The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill sought to align laws governing Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu & Kashmir with the proposed changes. (With inputs from The Hindu & Bar and Bench)