Reports say that the Central government is planning to convene a special session at the end of this month to pass the bills related to women’s reservation and constituency delimitation.
The Parliament’s monsoon session began on July 20 and continued until Aug. 13. During this session, there were speculations that the Women’s Reservation Bill and the delimitation bill would be brought back. However, amid the uproar by opposition parties, a total of 12 bills were passed, but the Women’s Reservation Bill was not brought back.
Following this, on Aug. 13, both Houses were adjourned sine die by their respective presiding officers. Normally, after a parliamentary session is adjourned in this manner, the President issues a notification within 4-5 days formally proroguing the session. However, even though two months have passed since the monsoon session was adjourned, this notification has not been issued.
As speculation grew stronger that the central government wants to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill without convening a new session, English media reports have said that the central government has decided to convene a special session of Parliament at the end of October.
Sufficient support for the delimitation bill?
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which provides for implementing 33 percent women’s reservation from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and, in line with that, increasing the number of Lok Sabha constituencies to 850, was introduced in the special session of Parliament held last April.
For a constitutional amendment bill to be passed, it requires more than 50 percent of the total members (543) voting in favor, as well as a two-thirds majority among the members participating in the vote. However, the bill failed because it did not secure the required two-thirds majority in the vote.
In this situation, reports have emerged that when the bills are reintroduced, the central government has ensured the support needed to pass them.
For this, while the disgruntled Trinamool Congress MPs are expected to support the central government, reports have also emerged that the central government is holding intensive talks to secure the support of the 22 MPs from the DMK, which has withdrawn from the India alliance, as well as MPs from smaller parties.
As the DMK continues to oppose the constituency delimitation bill, saying that population-based redrawing of constituencies will reduce their representation, reports say the Central government is planning to include a provision to uniformly increase the number of constituencies by 50 percent across all states in order to secure their support.