Women's Reservation Bill To Remain A Post-Dated Cheque Forever: K Kavitha

Telangana Jagruthi chief K Kavitha on Thursday demanded delinking of the delimitation exercise -- which intends to redraw parliamentary constituency boundaries to reflect population changes -- with the Women's Reservation Bill, alleging that the BJP-led central government lacks "sincerity" regarding providing a 33 per cent quota to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV's Managing Editor Padmaja Joshi on Thursday, she said she fears that the Women's Reservation Bill might get stuck in political and legal tangles and remain a "post-dated cheque" forever.

"First of all, the bill was already passed. At that time, they had promised us that they would do it after the 2027 census. Now they are linking this to delimitation. It looks like the Women's Reservation Bill will remain a post-dated cheque forever... Delimitation is not something many parties agree on. When the reservation bill was linked to the census, we were all hoping and praying that OBC women would also get their sub quota within. Now looks like that will remain a dream, and the whole reservation bill itself will be stalled. Because looking at the numbers, delimitation will not go through, and even if it is passed, there could be some legal hurdles...The BJP appears to be insincere in giving reservations to women," she said.

The BJP is using the Women's Reservation Bill, she claimed, to garner women's votes ahead of the West Bengal elections.

"The BJP has already used this card in the last parliamentary election. Before the polls, they had passed the bill; they said they would give it after the 2027 census, but now they are trying to use the bill again because there is the Bengal election, and a woman is leading. To get more women's votes, they are trying to do this in the middle of the elections. It is really unfair and unfortunate," she said.

Kavitha stated that if the BJP government intended to provide reservations to women in the Lok Sabha, it would not want to increase the number of seats by way of delimitation.

"The Women's Reservation Bill had been dragged into this politics -- first by the Congress and now by the BJP. If you are really sincere, you want to give reservations to women, why don't you give 33 per cent reservations on the 543 seats? Who is stopping you? You have enough majority in the House. They want to complicate it; they linked it to the census once, and they want to link it to delimitation. They want to put a gun on the shoulder of women and shoot the delimitation issue, because not many states agree to it," she added.

The Telangana politician further said she was opposed to the government's '50-per cent' formula for delimitation. 

"We are not opposing the delimitation exercise. Women's Bill is separate; the delimitation bill is separate. Today, the 131st amendment they are passing will only create a delimitation commission. This commission will further discuss the methodology. But instead of the commission, the Prime Minister himself has said that they are going to increase the seats by 50 percent. Why have the commission at all? This commission will set and discuss with the states, take their opinion, involve the stakeholders, and then there is a point of having this exercise. Otherwise, there is no purpose of this -- they can directly bring a bill and say we are increasing 50 percent seats," she added.

Parliament passed the Women's Reservation Bill in 2023. Per the rules, the quota can take effect only after the delimitation exercise.

The Delimitation Bill, 2026, along with the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The Delimitation Bill -- if it becomes a law -- will expand the Lok Sabha's strength from 543 to 850 seats, allowing the government to accord the 33 per cent reservation to women without offsetting the existing number of seats.

The Opposition is united against delimitation, calling it an "attack on federalism" and warning against disproportionate gains for Hindi-speaking northern states. Opposition-ruled Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Telangana argue that their representation in the Lok Sabha will be reduced compared to northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.​

The BJP contends that it would implement a uniform 50 percent increase in seats, maintaining proportional representation.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to allay the fears, saying the "decision-making" process will not "discriminate against or do injustice to anyone".

"I want to say from this House today with a great sense of responsibility that whether it is the South, the North, the East, the West, small states or large states... this decision-making process will not discriminate against or do injustice to anyone. In the past government that was in power, in whose time the delimitation took place, there will be no change in that proportion either, and the increase will also be in the same proportion," he said.