New Delhi: The winter session of Parliament may start in the first week of December. This time the biggest stake in the session is going to be the delimitation bill related to women's reservation. The government wants this bill to be passed in this session, so that the way can be cleared for 33% reservation for women before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
Preparation to increase Lok Sabha seats
According to sources, the government plans to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats through delimitation. At present there are 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, which is proposed to be increased to 850. Only after delimitation, one-third seats will be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies. This is the reason why the government wants to take this bill forward in this session.
But the session is starting in such an environment when there is already tension between the opposition and the government regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. The opposition is preparing to corner the government on this issue. In such a situation, there may be an uproar in the House during the discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill.
Will the bill pass this time?
The biggest challenge is data. This is a constitutional amendment bill, so to pass it, two-thirds majority is required in the Lok Sabha. That means support of at least 361 MPs out of total 543 will be required. At present there are 540 MPs in the Lok Sabha, three seats are vacant. NDA has about 320 MPs. That means the government needs about 41 more votes than the majority. This deficiency can be filled only with the support of other parties.
What is the government's plan?
It is being told that this bill was also brought in the budget session, but could not move forward due to lack of required numbers. Since then the political equations have changed a bit. The government's strength has increased with the joining of 20 rebel MPs from Trinamool Congress and 6 rebel MPs from Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) with the NDA. Still, the figure of 361 still seems far away. Despite this, the government is confident that this time the bill will be passed. A senior government official told news agency PTI that the bill will be passed by a margin of 15 to 18 votes.
That is, the government hopes that some opposition parties or independent MPs will also come together on the issue of women's reservation, because no party would want to openly oppose women's reservation. However, the winter session will be not just a legislative test for the government, but also a big political test. If the bill is passed, it will be counted among the biggest achievements of the government before 2029. And if it gets stuck then the opposition will get another opportunity to corner the government.