New Delhi

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Saturday said that the intentions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been defeated with the non-passage of the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill that sought population-based revision of constituencies based on the 2011 census.

He reiterated the stand taken by several senior Congress leaders and other opposition parties that the Centre intended to increase the number of seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the guise of women's quota.

"This defeat is not only of the Centre, but also of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This is not a political defeat for the BJP, but their intentions have been defeated. The three bills that were introduced are different only at the surface level, but they wanted to increase the seats in the guise of women's reservation," Reddy said in a press conference here.

"Nothing else was required to implement women's reservation. The 2023 (Women's Reservation Act) could have been implemented with small amendments," he added.

After the Constitution Amendment Bill failed to get two two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the two other Bills - Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill and Delimitation Bill of 2026 - were "intrinsically interrelated" with the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill and can't be viewed in isolation.

"The opposition didn't support this historic and important Bill that sought to provide the country's women with dignity and rights. It is unfortunate," Rijiju said in Lok Sabha on Friday.

Reddy further challenged the Centre to introduce and pass a new Bill for women's quota on April 20, but on 543 Lok Sabha seats, while assuring support from across opposition parties.

"You can introduce a new Bill for women's reservation on Monday. The entire INDIA alliance will support you as we did in 2023 and will unite all the opposition parties for that. Implement women's quota on 543 Lok Sabha seats. We can implement the reservation starting from Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are due in 2027. Your and Congress' intentions will be made clear by this," the Telangana CM said.

He added that Delimitation was not required to implement the women's quota since the women's reservation law can accommodate small amendments.

"No need to wait till 2029. Pass the new Bill on Monday and implement it from Tuesday. There's data readily available. You can get the voting data from the EC as well as the population data. Delimitation will not even be required," Reddy said.

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The opposition has been labelled as "anti-women" by the ruling BJP and its alliance partners for voting against the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill that sought to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 850.

The amendment bills introduced by the Centre were meant to advance the implementation of women's reservation legislation. It also sought to operationalise the women's reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.