Parliament special session: Lok Sabha to consider Delimitation Bill, Amendments to Women Reservation Bill for passing

The Lok Sabha is set to resume discussions on Friday and proceed to vote on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which proposes a 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies.

Alongside it, the House will also take up the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, extending the provision to Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir, and the Delimitation Bill, which aims to redraw constituencies and expand the Lok Sabha to 850 seats, as reported by ANI.

According to the list of Business for Lok Sabha, The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026; The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026; and The Delimitation Bill, 2026 will be taken up for discussion together.

Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are also likely to move that the amendments to the Women's reservation bill, and the Delimitation Bill be passed.

Earlier on Thursday, Lok Sabha held a marathon 12-hour session to discuss the amendments to the women's reservation bill, which removes the need to implement the bill only after the census is conducted. As per the final division, there were a total of 251 AYES and 185 NOES out of the total 333 votes. With the 251 AYES majority, all three Bills, including the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Delimitation Bill, 2026, were introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Multiple leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, discussed the bill. Multiple Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress leader KC Venugopal also participated in the discussion.

Congress has called upon the government to withdraw the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 in its current form and convene an all-party meeting to build consensus on it.

Speaking in Lok Sabha on the bill, Venugopal said the government intends to push delimitation in the garb of the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill.

Meanwhile Owaisi had alleged that "if these bills become law, the opposition's voice will be reduced to nothing in this House."

It also been alleged by multiple DMK, Congress MPs that Southern states will be disproportionately impacted if the bill is passed in its current form. Multiple leaders such as Manickam Tagore, A Raja have said that the southern states such as Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala will not have a proportional increase as compared to Northern states.

What did Amit Shah say in Lok Sabha?

Union Minister Amit Shah has in turn sought to allay apprehensions of opposition members about the Southern states losing their influence as a result of increase in seats. Shah has said that there will be about 50 per cent increase in their seats, the relative proportion in total seats will also move up.

TDP MP Byreddy Shabari on Thursday voiced support for the women’s reservation bills, saying the country is now focused on women-led development and that the proposed law would give women a rightful opportunity to lead, PTI reported.

"Gone are the days when our roles were restricted only to wife or daughter or mother. Gone are the days when the nation was talking about women's development, but here come the days when the nation is talking about women-led development, and the nation is giving us a chance to compete with the world, and also giving us a chance to lead the nation in a rightful way," the MP from the TDP, which is part of the NDA government at the Centre, said.

(With inputs from agencies)