NEW DELHI: Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over reports that the government is planning to reintroduce the Constitution Amendment Bill that includes delimitation, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals.
Karg said in his letter that the opposition should have sufficient time to study the government’s amended proposals before presenting them in the next monsoon session of Parliament.
“The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026 by a clear margin. I have read in media reports that the Union Government is now proposing to reintroduce a revised Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the next monsoon session of Parliament. I would once again request you to convene an all-party meeting to ‘discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc. and grant us Sufficient time to study it in detail before submitting it to Parliament,” Kharji wrote.
The letter comes amid reports of renewed efforts by the government to pass the bill with speculation gaining momentum that it may reintroduce the legislation in the upcoming monsoon session after the original Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 failed to secure the two-thirds majority required for its passage in the Lok Sabha on April 17.
The bill, introduced by the Modi government in April, proposes to raise the constitutional ceiling for Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850 and implement delimitation on the basis of the 2011 Census. The move is aimed at enabling the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 general elections.
Following the defeat of the bill, the government also withdrew the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which had been introduced alongside it.
Karji recalled that he had earlier written to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju in March and April requesting an all-party meeting on delimitation, but those requests were not accepted.
The Congress president’s message comes days after it was discovered that the government is working on multiple formulas to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50 per cent to allay concerns raised by several opposition parties, especially those in southern states, over the impact of delimitation on their parliamentary representation.
Since the budget session, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has moved closer to the numbers required to pass a constitutional amendment after 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs and six Shiv Sena MPs from the Eknath Shinde-led faction joined the alliance.
NCP leader Supriya Sule said her party would consider the amended proposal if it included guarantees for the states.
“The new delimitation bill has not been introduced yet. If it includes a provision to ensure 50% increase in seats for all states, we will discuss it within the India Caucus,” she said, adding to the momentum as speculation grows about a possible reunification between the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, both partners of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra.
The opposition had previously supported the principle of women’s reservation but criticized the border demarcation process, describing it as “hasty”, prompting its leaders to call for a meeting before reintroducing the draft law.
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