New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, called up Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP, Abhishek Banerjee on Friday morning. The call resulted in the TMC leader sending 21 of its MPs to the Parliament, to vote on the Constitutional Amendment Bill, fast tracking the women’s reservation. Earlier the party had confirmed the presence of 10 of its MPs in the Lok Sabha, when the Bill would be voted upon in the lower house.
Bill defeated as it fails to muster 2/3rd majority
The Women’s Reservation Bill was defeated by 298-230 on Friday. Though it was clear from day 1 itself that the government would not be able to muster up the requisite numbers in the House, to pass the legislation.
On Thursday, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah had said that the seats across the states would be increased by 50 per cent, in order to ensure that their proportionate representation in the Lower House would remain the same as it currently is. However when the Constitution amendment bill or the Delimitation Commission, 2026 bill was introduced in the House, the government did not make any efforts to introduce these provisions.
The Bills said that the allocation of seats across states would be based on the 2011 Census. This was not according to the assurance Shah had given in the House.
Shah then, just ahead of the voting, said that the provisions of increasing seats would be added. However, it was not clear whether this was just political gimmicks to get the Bill passed, ort a real assurance from the government.
Analysts and Opposition party leaders had thought that their MPs might miss out on voting on the Bill on Friday, owing to ongoing election campaigns in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This would mean an advantage for the BJP and the NDA. It was then that this call from Gandhi to Banerjee in West Bengal, changed the game completely.
One Trinamool leader, quoted by Hindustan Times said, that both the leaders, Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Banerjee spoke at length and discussed how if all 250 MPs would have been there, it would have changed the game completely. Gandhi reportedly thanked the TMC leader for his support. In response, Banerjee said that “the vote showed that the tide was turning against the BJP”.
Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav’s presence and BJP’s miscalculation
Meanwhile, the Congress-TMC bohemia was not the only deciding factor which led to the defeat of the Bill. There was another one, the presence of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav along with a large number of MPs from his party.
A senior Congress leader said “The government miscalculated on TMC and SP.”
At 8:03 pm on Friday, the constitutional amendment bill on women’s reservation was defeated due to lack of a 2/3rd majority. Expressing joy at this Rahul Gandhi posted on social media platform, ‘X’, “They used an unconstitutional trick in the name of women to break the Constitution. India has seen it. INDIA has stopped it. Hail the Constitution.”