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What next as Modi govt's amendment to women's quota law fails Lok Sabha test: The two other bills, and BJP's options now
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said the 3 bills were “intrinsically interrelated”, confirmed that the govt would not proceed with remaining two.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026 — the Narendra Modi government's proposed amendment to the 2023 women's reservation law — was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday evening after failing to secure the two-thirds majority required to pass such a constitutional change. It is the first defeat of a government bill since the BJP-led NDA with Modi as PM came to power in 2014, and the first time a constitutional amendment bill has failed in the Lok Sabha since 2011.
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The bill received 298 votes in favour and 230 against. Of the 528 members who voted, the bill needed 352 — two-thirds — to pass. It fell 54 votes short.
Following the defeat, the government withdrew the two other bills introduced alongside it: the Delimitation Bill 2026, which would have mandated a fresh redrawing of constituency boundaries based on the 2011 census; and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026, which covered Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir as UTs that have assemblies too.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said the three bills were "intrinsically interrelated", and confirmed the government would not proceed with the remaining two.
Also read: Why the women's quota bill failed in the Lok Sabha despite more votes in favour | Explained
What the bills proposed
The 131st Amendment sought to raise the constitutional ceiling on Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850, and to delink the implementation of the 2023 women's reservation law — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — from the next census.
Under the original 2023 law, 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was to come into effect only after the first census following the law's commencement, effectively meaning no earlier than 2034 as the current census is on, and may take a couple of years to complete, with a delimitation to follow.
The new bills aimed to bring the quota into effect by 2029, through a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 census. This delimitation based on old data brought back issues of regional disparity and caste calculus too.
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What the government promised
PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah both made personal appeals in the House over two days during the special sitting, assuring that the proportional seat-share of southern states would not be reduced.
On Friday, Shah made a last-minute offer from the floor, asking Opposition members whether they would support the bill if he returned within an hour with a revised copy formally guaranteeing the 50% proportional increase for all states. The offer was rejected. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Opposition did not trust the government.
After the defeat, Shah posted on X, “The Congress, TMC, DMK, and Samajwadi Party did not allow the passage of the essential Constitution Amendment Bill for the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. I want to tell them that this insult to Nari Shakti [women power] will not stop here; it will travel far and wide.”
What Opposition said
The Opposition maintained throughout the three-day session that it supported women's reservation but was not in favour of a “hasty” delimitation. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said after the vote, "This was not a women's reservation bill, but an attempt to change the electoral map of India. I want to tell the Prime Minister that if the government wants to implement the bill on women's quota that was passed in 2023, the Opposition will support it 100%."
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "We can never agree to linking women's reservation with delimitation based on an old census that does not include the Other Backward Classes. This is a big win for democracy in our country."
For the first time since 1931, a caste census is part of the national census, counting also OBCs besides SCs and STs who are already counted and given quotas in Parliament.
Also read: There's a big caste angle in women's quota, delimitation link
Opposition leaders also said the quota amendment was being presented only so that PM Modi could come across as “pro-women” ahead of voting in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly polls in the next two weeks.
What happens now
The original 2023 Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam remains on the books; it was even notified in the gazette on Thursday night. But it cannot be implemented without a fresh delimitation exercise.
If the government intends to implement it earlier, it has to now return to Parliament with new options, such as reserving one-third seats of the current strength of 543, at least for now. A cabinet meeting is scheduled for Saturday.
