The number of parliamentary seats may increase to 816, 1/3 of which are reserved for women

New Delhi: The government hopes to introduce at least two bills, including a constitutional amendment, to reserve one-third of seats for women in the next Lok Sabha polls and subsequent assembly elections in the current session of Parliament. The move is expected to change the country’s political landscape and put an authoritative stamp on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-touted women’s empowerment agenda as assembly campaigns in four states gather pace. If the government gets its way, the number of LS seats will increase by 50% from the existing 543 to 816, with the additional 273 seats reserved for women, ensuring that the existing political dynamics and current MPs (the vast majority of whom are men) are not cut off as the reorganization order is established. Therefore, the majority score will move to 409. The strength of LS will be increased for the first time in more than fifty years. The strength of the Federal Chamber and the state legislative councils will not be affected. At least two bills will be introduced, one on delimitation and another on constitutional amendments, which require the support of two-thirds of both houses. Although the ruling NDA itself does not have the strength to ensure the passage of the bill, the government seems keen to push for its passage during the budget session that ends on April 4. Failing that, the government could consider convening a short conference specifically on the issue of women’s quotas. Home Minister Amit Shah is spearheading support for the two bills and held two meetings on Monday, one with regional parties outside the NDA group, which includes opposition parties and parties not aligned with either group (NDA or India Bloc), and another with allies of the BJP. The women’s quota law, piloted by the Modi government in 2023, links implementation by the legislature to delimitation after the completion of the upcoming census. Delimitation plan could increase state seats by 50% Shah stressed the government’s preference to scrap the provisions in the existing law for implementation of quotas after delimitation after the upcoming census and initiate fresh delimitation based on the 2011 census, the last enumeration exercise, people familiar with the matter said.The proposal to rely on the 2011 Census aims to ensure that the women’s quota is introduced for the 2029 LS polls, as the release of the upcoming census data may take some time, leaving insufficient time to complete the nationwide delimitation exercise. “We are told that the government is keen to introduce quotas for elections held after March 31, 2029. If it takes several days to reach consensus, the budget meeting may be extended or even held after a few days of recess,” a person aware of the development said. The number of Lok Sabha constituencies in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will increase from the current 80 and 40 to 120 and 60 respectively, while the number of Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will increase from 20 to 30.In an odd number of states (Tennessee has 39), demarcation commissions will work out the details, but the jump ratios will be similar.The government believes that the proposal to maintain the proportion of states/Union Territories by increasing their share in LS by 50 per cent addresses the concerns of the southern states, which are concerned about their declining representative strength in the Assembly due to their successful attempts at population control compared to the northern states. Similar provisions will also apply to seats reserved for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. The current LS has 84 SC seats, which are expected to increase to 126, while the number of constituencies reserved for STs may increase from 47 to 70. Some Union Territories and states with one or two LS seats will have constituencies reserved for women every third election and the seats reserved for women will be reserved for three terms before entering the open category.While 22 MPs representing different political parties were present at the NDA meeting, representatives from the Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), BJD and YSR Congress also attended another meeting with Shah. Some opposition parties, including the Congress and the Left, have pushed for an all-party meeting. The TMC, which often cited Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s efforts to boost the party’s representation in parliament and parliament compared with other parties to highlight its pro-women leanings, was also absent from the meeting. Political parties like the Congress and Samajwadi Party have campaigned for OBC quota in women quota.While the NDA has a majority in LS and RS, it needs support from other parties to reach two-thirds. The Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in a special session of Parliament in September 2023. The government hailed the Constitution (106th Amendment) Bill as “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam”.However, some opposition MPs and women’s rights groups subsequently criticized the government for basing quotas on demarcations after the new census, as this made the implementation of the bill in 2029 uncertain.