Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday questioned the BJP-led government’s commitment to women empowerment, saying the ruling coalition had turned legislation to speed up the rollout of women’s reservation in legislatures into an electoral strategy rather than a genuine effort to empower women.
“The BJP, along with its allies, has 21 governments in states and union territories. Within these states, how many women are chief ministers? Even the Delhi chief minister does not have the rights of a prime minister. She is half a chief minister,” Yadav said, referring to the limited powers enjoyed by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who is the only woman chief minister from the BJP. Unlike full states, Delhi is a union territory with a legislature and the chief minister lacks control over the police, public order, lands and services which remain under the control of the central government through the lieutenant governor.
Yadav continued. “The organization where the BJP came from, how many women are in it?” he said, referring to the ideological wellspring of the ruling party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Delimitation Bill, 2026, the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 seek to increase Lok Sabha seats and conduct delimitation based on the latest 2011 census figures, to begin quotas from the 2029 general elections.
While participating in a debate on three bills introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, and set up a delimitation commission, Yadav accused the BJP of turning ‘nari’ (women) into ‘nara’ (slogan), and demanded that women from Muslim and OBC groups should also be given reservations under the women’s reservation framework.
The Kannauj MP stressed that his party supports reservation for women but wondered why it was suddenly rushed.
“The truth is that the BJP wants to postpone the census. Delaying the census also leads to delaying the caste census, as it will raise the issue of reservation, which the BJP and its allies do not want to address,” he said, adding that women’s reservation without census and caste data would remain incomplete.
“When we exposed the Form 7 and SIR scams that were removing names of voters, the BJP responded by bringing these bills. This time too, the BJP is trying to use women in political games, but it will not succeed,” Yadav said.
He agreed with Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, who alleged that the BJP wants to change the electoral map of the country through delimitation.
“The BJP has come up with a plan on how to increase Lok Sabha constituencies so that only the BJP gets political benefits. We have seen this in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir,” Yadav said. He added that the census must be conducted first, and the demarcation of borders must follow on the basis of accurate data, asking how to determine reservation if the basic data is flawed.
