Opposition parties on Saturday reaffirmed their longstanding demand that the women’s reservation law be implemented immediately within the framework of the current Lok Sabha strength, pushing back against the NDA’s efforts to paint them as anti-women.

The INDIA bloc met in the morning, a day after defeating the government’s efforts to bring in a delimitation exercise piggybacking on women’s reservation through a constitutional amendment.

It decided unanimously that every constituent of the bloc would demand that the government implement the women’s reservation law at once after removing the clauses relating to a population census and delimitation.

Fresh from denying the BJP the two-thirds majority it needed to pass the constitutional amendment in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition brought up the “400-plus seats” slogan plugged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the campaign for the 2024 general election.

The slogan is believed to have backfired and cost the BJP an absolute majority in the Lower House, courtesy an Opposition campaign suggesting the ruling party wanted such a tally to amend the Constitution and revoke social-category reservations.

On Saturday, addressing a news conference, Telangana chief minister and Congress leader Revanth Reddy said: “They could have formed a government with much less, but they wanted the kind of majority that would allow them to amend the Constitution and take away reservation.”

At another news conference, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said: “The government’s conspiracy to weaken the constitutional framework of the country was stopped. This was a win for the Constitution and Opposition unity…. The entire conspiracy was to somehow remain in government in perpetuity, using women.”

Priyanka said the BJP had conceived the move as a win-win strategy, planning to claim credit for the bill if it cleared Parliament, and attack the Opposition if it was defeated.

If they were such champions of women, she asked, why were they silent when the Hathras and Unnao (sexual assaults) happened, or when women wrestlers were protesting (alleged harassment by a senior official and MP), or when women in Manipur were paraded naked (during ethnic clashes).

Priyanka demanded that the BJP amend the 2023 women’s reservation law so it can be implemented in time for the 2029 general election.

Reddy went a step ahead and suggested that women’s reservation be enforced as early as the Uttar Pradesh elections next year.

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, the Trinamool Congress countered the BJP’s narrative by underlining that Bengal’s ruling party sends the highest proportion of women MPs to Parliament. Thirty-eight per cent of Trinamool MPs are women in contrast to the BJP’s 13 per cent.

“If your motives were honourable, you would not have waited nearly three years since the women’s reservation bill was passed in Parliament in September 2023, only to resurrect it at the precise moment when state elections are under way,” Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien said.

“The timing is not coincidental. The coupling is not incidental. This is not about women. It never was.”

DMK Rajya Sabha member P. Wilson submitted a private member’s bill for a constitutional amendment providing for the immediate implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies without linking it to a delimitation based on a population census. The bill sought to extend the freeze on delimitation till 2051.

Wilson also submitted a notice under Rule 267 for a discussion on the immediate implementation of women’s reservation. Rajya Sabha Chairperson C.P. Radhakrishnan did not allow the notice for discussion and adjourned the House sine die.

“In the bill, I have proposed that the law be amended to de-link the implementation of women’s reservation from delimitation,” Wilson told The Telegraph.

“This is because a delimitation based on population would encourage states that have defied family planning measures. The freeze on delimitation should be extended till 2051.”

In a post on X, the Shiv Sena (UBT) said: “In fact, there is a need to implement 33 per cent women’s reservation within the current seats! If the government truly holds such a stance, it is essential to effectively implement this reservation in the 543 seats for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, as well as in all elections across the country.”