Kharge demands Modi to call all-party meeting on delimitation!

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to call an all-party meeting to discuss the amended bills related to government delimitation before presenting them in Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session.

In his letter, Kharge reminded that Congress had repeatedly demanded comprehensive deliberations on this issue earlier this year.

He said that during March and April 2026, he had written letters to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister requesting an all-party meeting on the government’s delimitation proposals, but those requests were not accepted.

Kharge also mentioned the fate of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which failed to garner the constitutionally mandated two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026.

Kharge wrote that throughout the months of March and April 2026, I had written a letter to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister requesting the Central Government to call an all-party meeting to discuss the proposals related to delimitation etc. Unfortunately, my requests were not accepted. As a result, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 failed to obtain the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha by a clear margin.

The Congress president said media reports indicate that the Center is planning to reintroduce an amended version of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the upcoming monsoon session.

He said that in the light of these reports, I once again request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation and related issues and give adequate time to the political parties to study them in detail before presenting them in Parliament.

The letter was shared by Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh and was also posted by Kharge and the Congress party on social media platform X.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 could not be passed by the Lok Sabha in April after failing to receive the requisite support.

The proposed constitutional amendment aims to advance the implementation of women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures. It also provides for a substantial increase in the number of the Lok Sabha and lays the foundation for the next nationwide delimitation exercise, under which parliamentary seats will be redistributed among the states for the first time since 1976.