Parliament Special Session Highlights: Union Cabinet meeting on Saturday after women quota bill fails to pass Lok Sabha

Updates to this blog has been stopped. Please keep an eye on Livemint for more updates.

As per ANI, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "The Congress party has gone mentally bankrupt. The Congress party has exposed its anti-woman character, exposed its anti-SC, ST, OBC mentality... They have strangled the aspirations of half the population... Today, these people are shedding crocodile tears in the name of OBCs; these are not people who understand the aspirations and expectations of the women of this country... Isn't delimitation a constitutional arrangement? There is panic in the minds of these people..."

Rahul Gandhi took to X and said, "The amendment bill has fallen. 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."

Union Cabinet is set to meet on Saturday, said sources. This comes after women's reservation bill was defeated in Lok Sabha as it failed to secure two-thirds majority.

After women's reservation bill failed to pass in Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said on X, "Today, a very strange scene unfolded in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress, TMC, DMK, and Samajwadi Party did not allow the passage of the essential Constitution Amendment Bill for the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Rejecting the bill that would grant 33% reservation to women, celebrating it, and raising victory cries over it is truly reprehensible and beyond imagination."

He added, “Now, the women of the country will not get the 33% reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, which was their right. The Congress and its allies have done this not for the first time, but repeatedly. Their mindset is neither in the interest of women nor of the country.”

“I want to tell them that this insult to Nari Shakti will not stop here; it will travel far and wide. The opposition will have to face the 'wrath of women' not only in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, but at every level, in every election, and at every place,” Shah concluded.

Congress MP Mallu Ravi said, "Modi-BJP govt intentionally introduced this bill even when they knew they didn't have 2/3 majority...We have so many doubts about the delimitation, and this is why we opposed the bill."

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "It has been a very convincing victory. The BJP fell 52 votes short of the two-thirds they needed to pass the constitutional amendment... We are feeling a certain sense of triumph. this is not a vote against women's reservation, but against delimitation and the mischief that delimitation and the dramatic expansion of Parliament would do to our democracy, so we voted to save our democracy..."

"We have said even in our speeches, that we will vote for women's reservation if you will delink it from delimitation. It is against their refusal to delink this that we have voted..."

NDA leaders protest in Parliament premises as the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 fails to pass in Lok Sabha.

“We have stated our stance clearly. We are in favour of women's reservation. Samajwadi Party and Opposition did not oppose women's reservation,” Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav said, as per ANI.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi said, "This was not about women's reservation but democracy. We can never agree to linking delimitation with women's reservation. It was not possible that this bill would pass. This is a big win for democracy in our country."

"Those who did not take any action in Hathras, Unnao and Manipur are talking about an anti-women mindset?"

“We have defeated this attack on the Constitution. We have clearly said that this is not a women's reservation bill, but it is a way to change India's political structure,” said Rahul Gandhi, as per ANI.

On the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026, the final results following the paper vote showed 298 members voting in favour and 230 against.

Lok Sabha has been adjourned.

Constitution (131st Amendment) Amendment Bill got 278 ayes and 2 noes out of 489 voted in Lok Sabha, reported ANI.

Lok Sabha begins process for voting on three bills - The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and Delimitation Bill, 2026.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that in 1972, the government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introduced the Delimitation Bill, increasing Lok Sabha seats from 525 to 545 and subsequently freezing them at that number. He added that during the Emergency in 1976, the 42nd Amendment halted delimitation, alleging that the Congress party denied people this process then and continues to do so even today.

“In 1972, the then PM Indira Gandhi's government brought the Delimitation Bill and increased the number of seats from 525 to 545, and then froze it at this. In 1976, to save power during the Emergency period, the 42nd Amendment imposed a ban on delimitation. Even at that time, it was the Congress party that deprived the country's people of delimitation, and today too, it is the Congress party that is depriving them of delimitation,” he said, as per ANI.

Amit Shah trashes claims that the bill to amend the women's quota law aimed at delaying caste enumeration during the census.

Amit Shah slams Congress, says party deprived people of delimitation when it was in power; it is still doing the same.