Voting on three crucial bills, including a Constitutional amendment bill, will take place in Parliament on Friday at 4 PM, following 15 to 18 hours of discussions, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced on Thursday.
The government introduced all three bills in the lower house on Thursday.
The Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill was introduced with 251 members in support and 185 members opposing the introduction. The opposition had called for a division of votes on the bill’s introduction.
In addition, two ordinary bills—the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill—were also introduced in the Lok Sabha. These bills aim to implement the proposed amendments to the women's quota law in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Congress party has alleged that the bills, which propose changes to the women’s quota law and the establishment of a delimitation panel, are unconstitutional. They questioned why these changes were not included when the women’s quota law was initially passed in Parliament.
The Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill seeks to increase the total number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women. The bill is part of the government’s plan to fast-track the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Law ahead of the 2029 parliamentary elections, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
According to the draft bill circulated to Lok Sabha members, the seats reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies "shall be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a state or Union territory."
