Women’s Quota clash: Rijiju counters Rahul, stresses 2029 timeline
New Delhi, August 08: The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday hit back at Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s statement on women’s reservation, saying that the provision for reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies has been made in the Constitution’s 106th Amendment Act-2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Act), but the process of delimitation is necessary for its implementation.
Rijiju said in a series of posts on X that the constitutional provision regarding women’s reservation will come into effect based on the delimitation to be done after the publication of the census data. The delimitation is to be done on the basis of the census data to be published after the year 2023, and the current census process is ongoing.
He stated that due to the caste-based census, finalizing the census data published after 2026 could take considerable time. Consequently, the implementation of women’s reservation could be significantly delayed, and it would not be implemented before the 2034 general elections.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister stated that if women’s reservation is to be implemented in the next general elections in 2029, the delimitation process must begin as soon as possible based on the latest available published census data.
Rijiju stated that the implementation methodology for this was proposed in the Delimitation Bill, 2026, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha along with the Constitutional Amendment Bill. However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced for this purpose, could not be passed in the House.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi, addressing Rijiju on X, had said that as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, he was well aware that the Women’s Reservation Bill had already been passed unanimously in 2023 and that the Congress had fully supported it. He questioned why it hadn’t been implemented even after three years and why it was now being linked to delimitation. Rahul said the 2023 law should be implemented without any conditions.
Earlier, Rijiju, responding to a video of Rahul Gandhi shared on the Congress’s X handle, said it appeared to be a positive message from the Congress and a shift in Rahul’s stance on women. He expressed hope that the Congress would unconditionally support the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Rijiju’s response came in response to Rahul Gandhi’s video in which he said that the energy of Indian women was being suppressed and they were not being given the full freedom to express their energies and imagine. No country can succeed unless its women reach their full potential.
