Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 19 (ANI): Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday slammed Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the wider opposition on Sunday, declaring that their role in defeating the Women’s Reservation Bill marks the “beginning of the end” for the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal ahead of the polls.
Speaking in Kolkata, Rijiju framed the legislative failure in New Delhi as a direct assault on the rights of women in the East, suggesting that the electorate would deliver a “bad consequence” to those who blocked the landmark reform.
Rijiju clarified the government’s intent behind the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026, which sought to overhaul the 2023 Act by delinking the quota from the next census and expanding the Lok Sabha to 850 seats.
Rijiju claimed the bill aimed to eventually move toward 50% representation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies (referencing the broader spirit of the government’s empowerment agenda).
Despite receiving 298 “Ayes” to 230 “Noes” on Friday, the bill failed to secure the mandatory two-thirds majority required for a Constitutional Amendment.
“Today I have come here with a very important issue. The oldest city and the oldest capital of our country is Kolkata, and the most important city of Eastern India is Kolkata… In the recent special Parliament session, the most important bill was that of Women’s Reservation… This bill was to give 50% place to women of this country in the Parliament and assembly. This bill could not be passed because we did not have the required numbers, but it will have very bad consequences… The bill, which the opposition defeated yesterday, is just the beginning; this is the beginning of Mamata Banerjee’s government being defeated in West Bengal,” said Rijiju.
Rijiju addressed the opposition’s primary criticism–that the bill was a “Trojan horse” for a delimitation exercise that could disadvantage southern and eastern states. He argued that redrawing boundaries is a democratic necessity to fix voter-to-MP ratios, some of which have ballooned to 40 lakh voters per constituency.
Rijiju’s remarks came after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the reservation of women legislators, claiming that the party has championed higher political representation for women.
In an X post, Mamata Banerjee clarified that the TMC did not oppose the women’s reservation, but the Delimitation Bill linked to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. She accused PM Modi of misleading the nation.
She termed PM Modi’s address to the nation a “cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued” speech.
The TMC supremo wrote, “It is deeply unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to mislead the nation rather than address it honestly. Let me put this on record. Trinamool Congress has always championed higher political representation for women. We have the highest proportion of female elected representatives in both Parliament and the State Legislature. In the Lok Sabha, 37.9 per cent of our elected members are women. In the Rajya Sabha, we have nominated 46 per cent women members. The question of opposing Women’s Reservation does not arise and never has.”
She called the delimitation to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha an “assault on federal democracy”, claiming that the BJP wanted greater representation of the states ruled by the party through gerrymandering.
“What we are fundamentally opposed to is the Delimitation exercise that the Modi Government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda. What we are fundamentally opposed to is the altering of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution, the division of this nation and the usurpation of power through gerrymandering, by redrawing political contours to hand greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others. This is an assault on federal democracy. And we will not watch it happen in silence,” she wrote.
Earlier, the Lok Sabha took up the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, the Delimitation Bill, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill together for passing. In the division that took place on the Constitution Amendment Bill following the debate on the three bills, 298 members voted in favour and 230 against.
PM Modi pointed out that the defeat of this bill is a direct blow to the self-respect of women, an insult that the female electorate will permanently engrave in their memories. “Women may forget everything else, but they never forget an insult to their pride,” PM Modi said in his address to the nation on Saturday.
In an election rally in West Bengal, PM Modi accused the TMC of betraying women by opposing the representation of women in politics. (ANI)