Opposition accuses Narendra Modi government of using quotas as cover for redrawing electoral map
The Indian government has failed to pass a bill to increase female representation in parliament after being accused of using the plan as a guise to redraw the country’s electoral map.
It was the first time in 12 years in power that a constitutional amendment proposed by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was not passed by parliament.
The failure followed a fierce debate, with the government accused of an “attack on democracy” after it tethered a bill reserving one-third of parliamentary seats for women to a wider, controversial exercise of “delimitation”. The process would redraw parliamentary constituencies along population lines based on the 2011 census, and would increase the number of MPs in the lower chamber from 543 to about 850.
As a constitutional measure, the bill required a two-thirds majority, making it more challenging for the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance, which does not have an outright majority, to pass it. In the final tally, 298 MPs voted in favour and 230 against.
India’s often fragmented opposition parties showed rare unity in fighting the bill. The Indian National Congress member Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called it an “open attack” on democracy, while another senior figure, Gaurav Gogoi, accused the Modi government of trying to “bulldoze” delimitation through the backdoor….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/india-narendra-modi-women-representation-delimitationl
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After the truth-shower 