The Women's Reservation Bill amendment failed to pass the Lok Sabha on Friday due to the Center's inability to obtain the necessary votes.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was not approved by the Center, which needed a two-thirds majority. 298 MPs voted in favour of the proposed legislation, while 230 opposed it.
Following the first bill's failure, two additional proposals—one for delimitation and another for expanding the number of seats in the Lok Sabha—were not placed to a vote because the Center claimed they were "intrinsically linked" to the women's reservation law.The Center made a strong case for the reservation of 33% of seats in the Lower House of Parliament and state assemblies for women during the Lok Sabha discussion, which lasted beyond midnight on Thursday and continued on Friday.
Leading the charge on behalf of the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempted to soothe a major concern of the opposition parties by personally promising that the southern states will not suffer any injustice as a result of the increase in Lok Sabha seats.Let's all take advantage of this crucial chance to grant women reservations. PM Modi stated, "I have come to appeal to you; do not view this through a political lens; it is in the national interest."

On both days, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also gave the House assurances that whenever the number of seats in the Lok Sabha was increased from the current 543 to approximately 816, the representation of southern states will either remain the same or slightly rise.
In order to oppose the measure and deny women reservations, PM Modi and Shah also accused the Congress and other opposition parties of fabricating problems. The leaders of the BJP stated that these parties would have to pay a price at the hustings for obstructing the measure.
The View of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi objected to the bill's association with delimitation, claiming that the government was trying to reshape the nation's electoral map in its advantage by using the women's reservation issue as a pretext.

"This bill has nothing to do with women's empowerment, hence it is not a women's bill. He claimed that this measure is an attempt to use and conceal India's women in order to alter the electoral landscape of the nation.
Gandhi further asserted that the government was trying to evade the caste survey. "They are trying to avoid giving power and representation to my OBC brothers and sisters, and instead take power away from them," he stated.
Reactions
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the two other measures were "intrinsically interrelated" with the legislation after it failed to pass the Lok Sabha."It is regrettable that the opposition did not back such a significant and historic bill intended to respect and represent the nation's citizens. You wasted a chance that you had. He declared, "The Modi government will continue to fight for women's rights."
In the Parliament complex, BJP MPs also staged protests.
Home Minister Shah called the Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, and Samajwadi Party's "celebration" of this "reprehensible" and stated they prevented the measure from being passed.The country's women would no longer receive their right to a 33% reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.This has been done repeatedly by the Congress and its friends, not just once. He wrote on X, "Their perspective is not in the best interests of women or the nation.I want them to know that this insult to Nari Shakti will spread far and wide. He continued, "The opposition will have to deal with the wrath of women not only in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections but at every level, in every election."
Rahul Gandhi reaffirmed to reporters that the law was an assault on the Constitution.

"We are happy that we defeated this bill because, as I stated in the House, it was an attack on the Constitution. This was an attempt to alter India's electoral landscape rather than a Women's Reservation Bill. "I want to inform the Prime Minister that the opposition will fully support the government's desire to implement the 2023 women's quota bill," he declared.
A few minutes later, Gandhi took to X to denounce the Center's proposal as a "unconstitutional trick" that failed because the opposition INDIA alliance remained unified.Bharat has witnessed it. India has put an end to it," he wrote."We can never agree to linking women's reservation with delimitation based on an old Census that does not include the Other Backward Classes," stated Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, who has also strongly opposed tying the reservation measure to delimitation. This bill could not have been passed, and I think this is a significant win for our democracy and national cohesion."
Rahul Gandhi contacted Abhishek Banerjee, National General Secretary of the Trinamool Congress, and praised him for being instrumental in the bill's defeat, according to sources who spoke to NDTV.

The call is important because, despite being members of the INDIA coalition at the national level, the Congress and the Trinamool are running against one another in the West Bengal Assembly elections, which will be held on April 23 and 29.