Kharge calls for all-party meeting on delimitation bill, writes to PM

NEw new delhi: united states congress chair and Rajya Sabha leader of oppositeness Mallikarjun Kharge on th wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over reports that the government plans to reintroduce a Constitution amendment bill involving delimitation, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals.In his letter, Kharge said the opposition should have adequate time to study the government’s revised proposals before they are introduced in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.“The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3rd majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April, 2026 by a clear margin. I have been reading in media reports that the Union government now proposes to reintroduce a revised (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the forthcoming 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 give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament,” Kharge wrote.The letter comes amid reports of a renewed effort by the government to get the bill passed with speculation gathering 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 passage in the Lok Sabha on April 17.The bill, introduced by the Modi government in April, proposed raising the constitutional ceiling on Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850 and carrying out delimitation based on the 2011 Census. The move was aimed at enabling the implementation of the women’s reservation law before the 2029 general elections.Following the bill’s defeat, the government also withdrew the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which had been introduced alongside it.Kharge noted that he had earlier written to parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju in March and April seeking an all-party meeting on delimitation, but those requests were not accepted.The Congress chief’s letter comes days after it emerged that the government is learnt to be working on multiple formulations to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50 per cent to assuage the concerns raised by several opposition parties, particularly those from 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.Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule said her party would examine the revised proposal if it includes safeguards for states.“The new delimitation bill has not yet been introduced. If it includes a provision for ensuring a 50% increase in seats for all states, we will discuss it within the INDIA bloc,” she said, adding to the momentum as speculation grows of a possible reunification between the NCP (SP) and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, both partners in Maharashtra’s opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.The opposition had previously backed the principle of women’s reservation but criticised the delimitation exercise as “hasty”, prompting its leaders to appeal for a meeting before the bill’s reintroduction.EOM