Parliament special session LIVE: Lok Sabha speaker raps Rahul Gandhi for personal jibes; Amit Shah's reply soon

PArliament special session unrecorded: simply hours before Lok Sabha votes for or against the women's reserve and delimitation bills in the get down put up, PM Narendra Modi reached out to all Member of Parliaments, appealing them to vote for 'women power of the country'. NDA floor leaders will meet after the voting happens in Lok Sabha on the 3 key bills introduced on Thursday in the Parliament, including the women's reservation and delimitation bills. DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said that opposition wants clarity from the home minister Amit Shah on the calculations he provided on Thursday on how many seats will be increased in the Southern states. Shah had said that 50 percent seats will be increased across states in India.The decision on three key bills, including increasing the women’s quota in Parliament and expanding the number of seats, will be taken today at 4 pm in the Lok Sabha, but only after several more hours of debate.The three bills tabled in Parliament on Thursday by law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal are the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026; the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026; and the Delimitation Bill, 2026. These bills propose to increase the size of the Lok Sabha, enable delimitation based on the 2011 Census, and allow reservation for women to be implemented based on this delimitation. The Union Territories Laws Bill provides for similar provisions for Puducherry, Delhi, and Jammu & Kashmir.Also Read | Lok Sabha seats for all states to be increased by 50%, says law minister; 272 reserved for womenThe Lok Sabha held a marathon 12-hour session to discuss amendments to the women’s reservation bill, including removing the requirement to implement the law only after a fresh census is conducted. As per the final division, 251 members voted in favour and 185 against, out of a total of 333 votes. With this 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.Why Southern states refusing to accept bill?It has also been alleged by several DMK and Congress MPs that southern states will be disproportionately impacted if the bill is passed in its current form. Leaders such as Manickam Tagore and A Raja have argued that states like Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala may not see a proportional increase in seats compared to northern states.Union home minister Amit Shah sought to allay concerns raised by opposition members about southern states losing influence due to the increase in seats. He said that while there would be around a 50% increase in seats, the relative share of southern states in the total would also rise.12-hour debateThe Centre and the opposition debated the bills throughout the day, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing to opposition parties to support them, saying that opposing the bills would only give him political mileage.Also Read | Attendance in focus as Lok Sabha gears up for voting on crucial billsThe Congress said the bill is against the integrity of the country, while AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi strongly opposed the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Delimitation Bill. He said that if these bills become law, “the opposition’s voice will be reduced to nothing in this House.”Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also criticised the BJP-led government, alleging that it is delaying a caste-based census because conducting it would require releasing the data and implementing caste-based reservations for backward communities.“Samajwadi Party is in favour of the Women’s Reservation Bill. We have always worked towards women’s empowerment. But the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to turn women into a slogan. The BJP must answer: out of the 21 states it governs, how many have women chief ministers? Even your Delhi CM does not have full powers; she is a ‘half Chief Minister’. Why is there such a hurry?” he asked.