Opposition parties including the Congress, TMC, DMK and Samajwadi Party argue delimitation may shift power towards northern states, undermining federal balance and penalising southern states.
While backing women’s reservation in principle, leaders like Akhilesh Yadav and Sonia Gandhi have criticised its linkage to Census and delimitation, warning of delays and exclusion of OBC women due to the absence of sub-quotas.
Southern leaders including M. K. Stalin and Revanth Reddy have intensified resistance, calling delimitation the “real issue” and accusing the Centre of rushing the process without consultation.
The Union government has called for a three-day special parliamentary session beginning from April 16. This session aims to deliberate and pass key pending legislations on Delimitation and implementation of women’s reservations in Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.
Opposition parties are primarily opposing delimitation over concerns that it will alter the balance of political power in favour of northern states with higher population growth, while penalising southern states that have successfully controlled population. They argue this could distort India’s federal structure and disproportionately benefit the ruling party electorally. Another key concern is the lack of wider consultation and transparency, with opposition leaders demanding an all-party discussion before any major exercise that could reshape parliamentary representation.
On the Women’s Reservation Bill, the opposition broadly supports the idea of reserving 33% seats for women but criticises the linkage of its implementation to Census and delimitation. They have also raised concerns about the absence of a sub-quota for OBC and minority women, arguing that without it, the benefits may be skewed towards more privileged groups. For many opposition leaders, the issue is not the intent of the bill, but its timing, design, and potential political implications.
The Opposition has already demanded an all-party meeting After Assembly Polls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to seek clarity on Women’s Reservation Amendments.
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has written letters to the Prime Minister Modi and southern state CMs expressing concern over the proposed delimitation exercise.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday asserted the real issue with the government's move to bring bills in a special sitting of Parliament this week is delimitation, not women's reservation, and claimed that the reported delimitation proposal is "extremely dangerous" as well as an "assault on the Constitution itself".
During highly charged election campaigning days in West Bengal, chief minister and the TMC supremo Mamta Banerjee also criticised the move, saying, "...In the coming days, delimitation will happen and NRC will also be implemented; no one will have any shelter..."
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav highlighted the issue of sub quotas for women.
Yadav said, “We are in favour of women's reservation, but against that BJP cunning ploy, which is being carried out under a conspiracy. The BJP folks and their allies are sitting tight-lipped about the women of the country's largest population segment, meaning the 'backward classes.' The haste they're showing in the name of this amendment is actually driven by the BJP's intent to avoid a census, because if a census happens, they'll have to provide caste-wise data too, and caste-wise reservations as well. This is a massive BJP conspiracy, in which the rights of the backward classes are being looted by rejecting delimitation based on a census.”
Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK leader MK Stalin held a meeting with all the DMK MPs.
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran says, "Our leader MK Stalin held a meeting with all the DMK MPs. They are disguising the bill as a bill for women's quota, but it's not a bill for a women's quota. It is for delimitation. The real dragon is delimitation. They want delimitation based on the 2011 census, which all the opposition parties have been opposing. What is the hurry to introduce this bill when the other states are going for elections? Every member of parliament belonging to DMK from Tamil Nadu will be present, and we'll be voting against the bill..."
