Rijiju says women’s quota may face delay without early delimitation

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said early delimitation using the latest Census figures would be needed to implement women’s reservation in the 2029 elections. His remarks came amid an exchange with Rahul Gandhi over the legislation and its implementation timeline

New Delhi: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju responded to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi over the issue of women’s reservation, detailing the provisions of the 2023 Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, or the Constitution (106th Amendment) Bill.

Meanwhile, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced in April 2026 to fast-track the 33 per cent women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies by using the 2011 Census for early delimitation. However, the bill failed to pass in the Lok Sabha after falling short of the required two-thirds majority.

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The Union Minister further noted that the ongoing census exercise could take considerable time, particularly because of the inclusion of caste enumeration, potentially delaying the implementation of women’s reservation beyond the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and possibly until at least 2034 if an early delimitation exercise is not undertaken.

He also referred to the proposed Delimitation Bill, 2026, which seeks to facilitate faster implementation of the women’s reservation using the latest available census data, and mentioned the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced for the purpose but was defeated.

Taking to X, Rijiju said, “Rahul Ji, you know it very well that: The reservation of seats for women in the House of the People and Legislative Assembly of the State is provided in the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam).”

He pointed out that the constitutional provision shall come into effect “after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken” and “based on the census figures published after the year 2023, which means the census figures published after the year 2026”.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that the exercise for publishing census figures after 2026 is currently underway, but cautioned that the process “may take substantial time (due to caste-based census) to be finally published”.

“In view of this, it may result in considerable delay in the implementation of women reservation, at least not before 2034 General Elections,” Rijiju added.

He argued that if the government wants to ensure implementation of women’s reservation in the next general elections scheduled for 2029, the delimitation process would have to be undertaken at the earliest using the latest available census figures.

“Therefore, to implement the women’s reservation in the 2029 general elections, the delimitation exercise needs to be undertaken at the earliest, based on the latest available Census figures, as published,” Rijiju stated.

He further referred to the proposed legislative mechanism for implementing the reservation and said that the methodology had been outlined through the Delimitation Bill, 2026, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha along with proposed constitutional amendments.

“The implementation methodology has been proposed under the Delimitation Bill 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha along with the amendments to the Constitution. However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced for this purpose, has been defeated,” he added.

The exchange comes amid a series of posts on X between Rijiju and Rahul Gandhi over the implementation of the Women’s Reservation (Amendment) Bill and the timeline for providing one-third reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies.

Rijiju’s response came after Rahul Gandhi earlier in the day reacted to the Union Minister’s remarks concerning the women’s quota legislation. Gandhi said that the quota Bill had been unanimously passed by Parliament in 2023 with the “full support of Congress”.

The Congress leader also accused the government of unnecessarily linking the implementation of women’s reservation with the delimitation exercise, maintaining that the legislation already had broad political support.

The exchange between the two leaders began after Rijiju said that the Congress party should have “no difficulty” in supporting the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.