Delimitation provisions in women's reservation amendment bill 'attack on democracy': Kerala Oppn

Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Opposition leaders from Kerala on Thursday reiterated their objections to the delimitation provisions in the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill set to be introduced in the Parliament, terming it as an "attack on democracy".

The opposition leaders, including Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, UDF MP N K Premachandran and CPI leader Annie Raja, said they were in favour of reservation for women in the current strength of the Parliament, but will not accept the delimitation provisions being brought under its garb.

"The delimitation provisions in the bill will be defeated by us," Venugopal told reporters in Delhi.

He said that the provisions were aimed at "butchering" democracy and questioned why the Centre has not done anything till now after the Women's Reservation Bill was passed in 2023.

"We back then itself wanted the reservation to be implemented in the 543-member Parliament. But they imposed conditions like census and delimitation for implementing it," Venugopal said.

He claimed that the delimitation will only result in exacerbating the neglect being shown to Kerala.

The Congress leader further said that the delimitation provisions were a "hidden trap" and the agenda behind it was clear as two states are going for Assembly polls.

He claimed that the delimitation which was "arbitrarily carried out" in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir is being sought to be implemented across the country by the central government.

Similar views were expressed by Premachandran and Raja.

Premachandran contended that the delimitation provisions, if passed, will lead to an increase of over 200 seats for north Indian states and just 60 for south Indian states.

"The intention behind it is to allow the BJP to rule over the country with the overwhelming majority it will have from the north Indian states while isolating the south Indian states," he alleged.

Raja alleged that the delimitation provisions in the amendment bill seek to sabotage democracy and federalism of the country in the name of reservation for women.

A special three-day sitting of Parliament will be held from April 16 to 18, during which amendments to the 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam', commonly known as the Women's Reservation Act, mandating 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, will be brought for implementation in 2029.

The amendments also seek to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published census.