Congress Demands All-Party Meet on Women's Reservation Bill

Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal demanded an all-party meeting to build consensus on the Women's Reservation Bill, accusing the government of using the legislation as cover to advance delimitation, a redrawing of constituency boundaries that opposition parties argue could disadvantage states in the south and other regions. Speaking in Lok Sabha, Venugopal charged that the government's real intention was to embed a delimitation trigger into the Bill rather than deliver immediate reservations for women. The core opposition grievance is that the Bill ties implementation to a future census and subsequent delimitation exercise, effectively deferring any practical benefit by years. Venugopal specifically noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not use the word "delimitation" once during his speech in the debate, despite that being the central issue raised by opposition members. The demand for an all-party meeting signals that Congress intends to keep the delimitation linkage as a live political fault line, particularly ahead of state elections in southern India where constituency boundary changes are a sensitive issue.