Women’s Bill Failed, Why Delimitation Bills Withdrawn?

The Centre’s plan to implement 33 percent reservation for women in legislatures has suffered a major setback after the Constitutional Amendment Bill failed to pass in the Lok Sabha.

A total of 528 MPs participated in the voting. While 298 supported the bill and 230 opposed it, the numbers fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Speaker Om Birla confirmed that the bill was defeated.

The core reason behind this outcome lies in how the bill was structured. The government linked women’s reservation to a future delimitation exercise, and this became the biggest point of disagreement.

Opposition parties were not against reservation itself, but strongly objected to making it dependent on delimitation. They argued that this would delay implementation and could also change the political balance between states.

Because of this, the bill failed to get the required majority. Once the main bill was defeated, the government withdrew the Delimitation Bill 2026 and the Union Territories Laws Amendment Bill 2026, as both were tied to the same framework.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the withdrawal of the related bills in the House.

The opposition reacted strongly to the developments. Rahul Gandhi said the bill was not a genuine women’s reservation measure and criticised linking it with delimitation. He said the opposition is ready to support direct implementation of the earlier version of the law.

Priyanka Gandhi also questioned the approach, while M. K. Stalin called the outcome a victory. A. Revanth Reddy said the opposition had prevented what he described as a major structural change.

With the bill failing, the plan to introduce women’s reservation by 2029 is now uncertain. It has also slowed down the larger exercise of increasing Lok Sabha seats and redrawing constituencies.

The episode shows how lack of political consensus can stall even major reforms, even when there is broad agreement in principle.