Telugu leaders react as delimitation, women’s quota Bills fail to pass Lok Sabha test

Hyderabad: The dramatic defeat of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament on Friday sent ripples across the political spectrum in both the Telugu states, with leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh trading blame and demanding accountability.

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy hailed the outcome as a victory for democratic forces, crediting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for rallying the opposition against the delimitation.

In a social media post, he wrote, "Today will be remembered forever as a Red-letter Day in Indian History, when under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, and Mallikarjun Kharge united all democratic forces and opposition leaders in averting a national disaster."

"I thank leaders of various allied parties who united and stood steadfast under fire to defeat these black bills, including Thiru MK Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Hemant Soren, Farooq Abdullah, Naveen Patnaik, Arvind Kejriwal, and the leaders of the Communist parties, among others. Jai Hind."

“By blocking the Women’s Reservation Bill, the Congress-led opposition has denied India a historic step toward women’s empowerment. This is not just political obstruction, it is a betrayal of millions of women who deserve equal voice and rightful representation in Parliament. The nation will remember," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu said.

In a series of letters to Chief Ministers of southern states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh he had urged a united front against the delimitation provisions, arguing that the South stood to lose significant parliamentary representation as a result of its success in population control.

The letters warned that penalising states for their demographic discipline would set a dangerous precedent and undermine federal equity.

BRS Working President K T Rama Rao argued that women's reservations enjoyed cross-party support including from the BRS and that the Bill could have sailed through Parliament had the government simply worked within the existing 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Instead, he alleged, the BJP chose to shackle the legislation to the deeply contentious delimitation process, knowing full well it would fracture the opposition coalition and doom the Bill's passage.

"The people of the country have witnessed the BJP's political drama in the name of women's reservations," KTR said, demanding that the Centre introduce a fresh Bill, stripped of any delimitation linkage, in time for the next elections.

He also warned that the current delimitation framework risks shrinking southern states' parliamentary footprint, a concern, he noted, that several parties had flagged and the government had chosen to ignore.

Telangana Jagruthi founder and former MLC K Kavitha said the BJP had cheated women. "The BJP has cheated the women of India yet again. Knowing fully well that linking delimitation to Women's Reservation would lead to the Opposition voting against the bill, and being aware that they lacked the necessary numbers, the government introduced the bill in a rushed manner. The emotions of the women of this nation are being exploited for political mileage."

"I urge all women to see through this web of deception and teach the BJP a lesson, beginning with West Bengal, where a woman is leading the battle. Secondly, now that the bill has failed to pass, they should wait for the 2027 Census so that an OBC sub-quota can be incorporated. Representation remains hollow until all communities are uplifted," she said in a social post.

However YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy turned his fire on the very parties now claiming credit for blocking the Bill.

"Opposing parties should seriously question themselves; what have they achieved? While the reality is that the numbers would come down for the south and women reservation bill has been postponed! Justice is rendered neither to the south nor the women! If 2026 census were to come the situation would be worse off for the south, further penalised for being disciplined in the matters of family planning," Jagan said in a social media post.

Notably, both the ruling coalition TDP and Jana Sena and the opposition YSRCP from Andhra Pradesh had backed the delimitation and women's reservation bills in the Lok Sabha.