Desk Correspondent , New Delhi - The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, aimed at facilitating 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures, failed to pass in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The bill, introduced alongside the Delimitation Bill and Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, required a two-thirds majority of 352 votes but secured only 298 in favour, with 230 against. The Opposition, including Congress, opposed the linkage of women's quota with the delimitation exercise, arguing it could disrupt democratic processes and was unnecessary for immediate implementation in the existing 543-seat House.

The two-day debate deepened the rift between the ruling BJP and Opposition parties. The government accused the Opposition of betraying over 700 million women, while Opposition leaders contended that the women's reservation could be enacted without tying it to redrawing of constituencies based on the 2011 Census. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra challenged the government to bring the original bill for a vote to determine who truly stood against women's empowerment.

Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Kerala, strongly rejected the "anti-women" tag levelled by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. In a post on X after a light-hearted post-adjournment interaction with Rijiju, Tharoor wrote: “When @KirenRijiju explained why he & his party were calling the Opposition ‘mahila virodhi’, it was pointed out to him that no one could ever call me anti-women! He conceded the point…” Tharoor added, “Let’s face it, women are by far the better half of the species. They’re the improved models: Humans 2.0. They deserve representation in Parliament and in every institution. Just don’t link their advancement to a mischievous and potentially dangerous Delimitation that could devastate our democracy.”