‘Proceedings suspended for one hour’: Amit Shah raises motion against Delimitation Bill; Akhilesh hits back at ‘female prime minister’ remark

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday suggested that proceedings in the Lok Sabha be suspended for an hour so that he could move a formal amendment that the number of seats in each state would be increased by 50 per cent after delimitation.“If the argument against the bill is that there should be 50 per cent reservation, then the proceedings are suspended for an hour and I will move formal amendments to the bill. But first, they (opposition) need to commit to passing the bill,” Shah said.He added, “Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – the strength of these five states in the 543 Assembly seats is currently 129, accounting for 23.76 per cent. After an increase of 50 per cent, when we allocate seats to these five states, it will go up from 129 to 195, accounting for 23.87 per cent of the 816 seats.” No one should feel overwhelmed. “However, sajwadi party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav rejected Shah’s proposal, citing what he called the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s “record” since it came to power in 2014.“Based on the experience of almost 11 years, even if the BJP gives a written assurance that they will appoint a woman prime minister, we still won’t trust them,” Yadav added.Opposition parties have called delimitation a “dangerous” move, arguing that increasing the size of the Lok Sabha from 543 to around 850 could reduce the relative representation of the south, northwest, northeast and other smaller states.They say this is because seat allocation based on population growth could benefit more populous states, while states that control population growth could lose political influence in parliament.The opposition parties also linked the issue to women’s reservation, demanding that the government immediately implement a 33% quota from the current 543 seats under Article 334A passed in 2023.They argue that because the provision states that quotas will come into effect after boundaries are drawn based on the 2027 census, the work can be completed ahead of the 2029 election using new census data. They also criticized the government’s reliance on the earlier 2011 census in the process.