Om Birla approved six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs' merger with Eknath Shinde's faction.
NDA strength rose closer to two-thirds majority after fresh Lok Sabha realignments.
Renewed numbers boosted prospects for the Constitution Amendment Bill and women's reservation.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday approved the merger of six Shiv Sena (UBT) rebel MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, dealing a fresh blow to Uddhav Thackeray's faction and pushing the ruling National Democratic Alliance closer to a commanding majority in the lower house.
The decision takes Shinde's Shiv Sena to thirteen seats in the Lok Sabha, while reducing the UBT faction to just three members. The Speaker also granted separate seating to twenty MPs who broke away from the Trinamool Congress and announced a merger with the regional Nationalist Citizens Party of India, though formal approval of that merger remains pending.
The TMC rebel group was led by MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who announced the switch last month. With the NDA currently holding 298 seats in the Lok Sabha, including the Speaker, a formal approval of the TMC rebels' merger with the NCPI would take the alliance's effective strength to 318 in the 540-member house, where three seats currently lie vacant.
Constitution amendment back on the table
The string of defections has reignited speculation that the Centre may revive the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which proposes expanding the Lok Sabha to up to 850 seats and implementing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam of 2023, which provides for a thirty-three per cent reservation for women in legislatures. The Bill was defeated in April after securing 298 votes, falling short of the two-thirds majority of 360 required in a house of 540 members.
Sources told ANI that the government is actively working to address concerns among regional parties and has been attempting to assure states of a uniform fifty per cent increase in their Lok Sabha representation. With the NDA moving closer to the two-thirds mark and the DMK maintaining its distance from the opposition INDIA bloc, the arithmetic is beginning to look more favourable for the Centre than at any point since the Bill's earlier defeat.
Earlier, seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs had also joined the BJP, reflecting a broader pattern of political realignment that has steadily strengthened the ruling coalition's position across both houses of Parliament.
[With agency inputs]
