‘Will back delimitation bill if all states get 50% seat increase each’: Supriya Sule's remarks spark buzz

ARenewed call by the unification authorities to make it a makeup amendment bill on women’s reservation and delimitation gathered momentum on Wednesday after Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule said her party would consider supporting the proposed legislation if it spelt out a uniform 50% increase in Lok Sabha seats across all states.The development came amid speculation that the government will re-introduce the bill that failed to garner the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha in the previous session. There is also buzz that the NCP (SP), a partner in Maharashtra’s opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), was inching closer to the ruling National Democratic Alliance. On Tuesday night, senior NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil met Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, in the presence of NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare, fuelling rumours that efforts to reunite the two outfits were gaining pace.“The new delimitation bill has not yet been introduced. If it includes a provision ensuring a 50% increase in seats for all states, we will discuss it within the INDIA bloc. If it serves the interests of the people, we will consider supporting it,” Sule said in Mumbai.There is a possibility that the government may revise the text of the proposed bill to include a reference to the 50% proportional increase in seats for each state, said a person aware of the details. According to this person, the Union government was keen to introduce the bill “provided it” had the numbers.What did the previous bill propose?The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Delimitation Bill, which seeks to redraw boundaries based on the 2011 census and is a prerequisite for implementing the 33% quotas for women in legislatures, were introduced in the Lok Sabha in the previous session. But the constitution amendment bill failed to reach the two-thirds majority mark in the Lower House, getting defeated 298 to 230. At the time, the NCP (SP) had voted against the bill.The government’s legislative push involved raising the cap on seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, with the allocation of seats to states, the reserved constituencies and their boundaries being defined by a delimitation commission on the basis of the latest census, which would mean the 2011 one in this case.But the Opposition remained unconvinced, pointing out that the government’s assurances of a uniform 50% rise in Lok Sabha seats in every state was verbal and not mentioned in the text of the bills. In his speech at the time, Union home minister Amit Shah attempted to turn the tables on the Opposition, offering to bring an official amendment mentioning a 50% increase in Lok Sabha seats in return for support for the women’s reservation bill. But the draft legislation was still defeated.“When the bill was earlier introduced we had assured all parties that all the states, including the southern ones, will benefit from the 50% increase in the seats. Several parties including the DMK in Tamil Nadu, were assured that their representation would go up proportionally, but since they were bound by coalition compulsions (the DMK was part of the INDIA bloc) they ended up opposing it,” said a government functionary.Decoding the numbersBut the scenario has since changed. Twenty of 28 Trinamool Congress lawmakers have joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, indicating their support to the NDA. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, with 22 lawmakers, had a fallout with the Congress and didn’t attend INDIA bloc meetings. Recently, six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs switched to the Shiv Sena.The ruling dispensation is also now banking on support from non aligned parties such as the YSR Congress Party, DMK and even from INDIA members such as NCP (SP).Support from the DMK – that has 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha and eight in the Rajya Sabha – and the Samajwadi Party – with 37 in the Lok Sabha and 10 in the Rajya Sabha – remains crucial. If all MPs participate in the voting, the NDA will require 360 votes in the Lok Sabha.Congress’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh told HT the government had not reached out to them. TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said the government had not reached out over any new delimitation bill.“We want the women’s reservation law to be implemented before the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. We will not allow the government to use delimitation as a tool to weaken the Opposition across the country. So far, we have not received any communication from the BJP or the government on this,” SP spokesperson Abbas Haider said.A lawmaker from the DMK said the party will not make a comment on the proposed bill until they hear from the government at the all-party meeting, scheduled for Sunday.A TDP lawmaker said Shah had said that the assurance about the increase in the number of seats will be included in the bill. “We are confident they will change the text of the bill. That’s what HM said on the floor of the house so we are confident it will be done and passed.”In the current 540-member Lok Sabha, the NDA has 293 members and needs 360 for the bill’s passage, whereas it needs 164 votes in the 245-member Rajya Sabha, where it has 149 members currently.In Mumbai, Sule said the party had earlier conveyed its reservations over the proposed legislation during a meeting with Shah and parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju. According to Sule, the centre had assured opposition parties that their concerns, particularly regarding a 50% cap on an increase in seats, would be addressed in the legislation. However, she alleged those assurances were not reflected in the earlier version of the bill.“We unanimously supported the women’s reservation bill. As far as the delimitation bill is concerned, it must clearly state that the number of seats in all states will increase by 50% in equal proportion,” she said. “There should also be a 50% cap so that no state faces injustice.”Sule also said the bill must clearly define the proposed formula for delimitation in every constituency. She, however, clarified that the party had not taken an official position yet.