New Delhi [India], August 10 (ANI): As a delegation of eight NCP (SP) MPs is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, Congress has asked its alliance partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to convey the INDIA bloc’s “unequivocal position” that the proposed delimitation Bill should not be linked to the women’s reservation issue.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Sachin Sawant urged the NCP (SP) delegation to push PM Modi for immediate implementation.
“It is learnt that the MPs of the Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday regarding issues concerning Maharashtra. We urge them to firmly convey to Prime Minister Modi that the INDIA Alliance’s unequivocal position is that the Women’s Reservation Act, passed in 2023, must be implemented immediately and should not be linked to delimitation,” Sawant posted on X on Sunday.
He said that it was important for the opposition to remain united on the issue of delimitation.
“It is important that the unity of the INDIA Alliance and its opposition to the Modi government on this issue is made unequivocally clear,” he said.
This comes after NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule on Saturday announced that eight MPs from her party will meet Prime Minister Modi to raise issues concerning Maharashtra, including farmer suicides, water crisis and problems arising due to rapid urbanisation.
“We – some MPs and I – were talking about that Prime Minister must be apprised about the problems in Maharashtra. There is water related issues, farmer suicides, and problems being faced due to urbanisation,” Sule said while addressing a presser in Mumbai.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Navneet Rana said that if MPs from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction are meeting PM Modi for the development of Maharashtra, the move should be welcomed.
Speaking to reporters here, Rana said, “I feel that if MPs from Sharad Pawar’s party are meeting PM Modi for the sake of Maharashtra’s development–driven by the belief that the state needs to progress further–then such a meeting is certainly not a bad thing.”
Rana said that any effort by elected representatives to raise issues related to Maharashtra’s progress and development with the Prime Minister should be seen positively.
“While all sorts of speculations are being made, I believe any such speculation ultimately bodes well for Maharashtra; there could be nothing better than them approaching the PM to advocate for the state’s development,” she added.
This comes amid opposition to the government’s proposed delimitation exercise, which was linked with the implementation of women’s reservation.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, sought to increase the strength of the Lower House to 850 seats and expedite the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in 2023.
However, the bill failed to secure the constitutionally required special two-thirds majority of members present and voting in Parliament and was not passed during the extended Budget Session.
The Congress and other opposition parties have supported the Women’s Reservation Act but have opposed linking its implementation with delimitation, which involves increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats and redrawing constituencies.
The Opposition has maintained that women’s reservation should be implemented immediately and delinked from the delimitation exercise. (ANI)
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