Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the number 16 carries a heavy meaning in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans for delimitation – increasing and shifting Lok Sabha seats – by grouping it with an amendment to the women’s quota law passed in 2023.
Rahul said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking in the Lok Sabha about his government’s plan in this regard, “I was sitting here and watching. His energy was low. He was not able to participate.”
He said he then noticed the date was April 16. “It’s clear that trying to pass this bill (the constitutional amendment) was a mistake. Everyone knew,” the congressman said, playing the number.
He added: “I saw the date on my phone, April 16, and I said: Oh my God, how crazy!” This is the number. Sixteen. And the answer to the puzzle is in number 16. Now if anyone understands what I’m saying, please send me a message.
The answer to “your problems,” he said — pointing to the Treasury benches — “is in the number 16.”
One mathematical fact he could point out is that the BJP has not had a majority on its own since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has 240 MPs, and its main allies include Nitish Kumar’s party from Bihar, which has 12 MPs, as well as 16 MPs from the LDP led by Chandrababu Naidu from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Although he did not provide any details, Rahul Gandhi was ostensibly indicating that the TDP, being a party from South India – a region that fears losing seat share in the enlarged Lok Sabha – may not be in agreement with the Modi government in its plans.
For your information, Andhra Minister and newly appointed working president of the LDP, Nara Lokesh, who is Naidu’s son, thanked Prime Minister Modi on Thursday for “assuring the nation on behalf of the NDA that no injustice will be done to any state through the delimitation process.”
The Congress and several parties from southern India, the region that includes Andhra state, said the states may eventually lose seats despite their success in controlling their populations under a national family planning policy.
The Congress stressed that Prime Minister Modi’s “guarantee” and Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that there will be a consistent 50% increase in Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 are worthless if not codified in law. Shah said the proportional share of states will remain the same.
But this is not written in the bills, as analysts also noted.
The delimitation, done by a central government-appointed committee, could reduce the share of southern states from 24% to 20% in the Lok Sabha, if done as per the 2011 census now or later, as the DMK of Tamil Nadu has indicated for example.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi warned Parliament on Friday afternoon that the way the government is implementing the quota system for women – 33 per cent reservation in Parliament and state assemblies – is actually an attempt to change India’s electoral map.
He also declared this to be a “panic reaction, so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can show that he is pro-women”, especially ahead of votes in next week’s Bengal and Tamil Nadu assembly elections, in which women voters are likely to play a major role.
Speaking on the second day of a special session to pass bills related to demarcation of boundaries and increase in Lok Sabha seats, he said the government linked these bills to the Women’s Reservation Bill to try to hurt states that better control population growth.
However, the government said delimitation and expansion of Lok Sabha boundaries were necessary to operationalize women’s quota before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, and termed any party trying to obstruct its move as “against women empowerment”.
Read also | The G word at the heart of concerns: Why Oppn wants to separate total LS seats and women’s quota
