Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said on Thursday that the total number of seats in the Lower House will be increased to 815, of which 272 will be reserved for women. He was delivering introductory remarks on the three bills moved to amend the women's quota law and set up a delimitation commission.
Assuring that neither men nor any state will suffer any loss due to the implementation of this quota, Meghwal said the 272 seats out of 815 in the House is the simple formula of reserving 33 per cent seats for women in the wake of the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. This means that in the expanded House, one-third of the seats will be reserved for women. But the quota will come into effect only after the completion of the delimitation exercise based on the 2027 Census.
"The bill will ensure political justice for women."
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- Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Women's Reservation bill in LS pic.twitter.com/dVXZkKYSLg
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. "According to the women's reservation bill, the strength of the Lok Sabha will be increased to 815, of which women's quota will be of 272 seats," the minister said, adding that the proposed legislation means that there will be an increase of 50 per cent in the current strength of the Lok Sabha. "Neither men nor any state will suffer any loss after the implementation of the women's quota," he said.
Meghwal also said that there will be reservations for women belonging to SC and ST categories within the women's quota in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. He added that if the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhniyam, 2023, continues in its present form, reservation of constituencies for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies would not be possible in 2029, as it would be based on the census data, which would be made available after 2026. Hence, the Constitution amendment bill was brought. "The main objective of the bill is to give women their due rights," he said.
Earlier, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party had opposed the bill. Congress' K C Venugopal questioned why the proposed changes in the women's quota law were not incorporated when it was passed earlier by Parliament. "Bills to tweak the women's quota law and set up a delimitation panel are anti-constitutional," he said.
Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav questioned the rush to introduce the bills. "We support women's quota in the legislature, but why not hold a census?" he asked.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday took up the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill, 2026, for debate and passage. The Bills were introduced after a fiery 40-minute debate, following which the opposition pressed for a division of votes to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill.
The Bill was later introduced with 251 members supporting it and 185 members voting against the introduction.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on Thursday accused the opposition of carrying out a systematic propaganda to mislead the people on the bills to tweak the women's quota law and asserted that the Modi government does not believe in the politics of postponement.
