India: Parliament fails to pass women's quota bill after delimitation uproar

What you need to know

• India's parliament fails to pass a vote on a controversial bill for the early implementation of a quota for women lawmakers that would have also seen the Lok Sabha grow to over 800 seats
• The consitutional amendment bill was tabled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government
•  298 members said yes to the bill and 230 voted no
• Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umerov met with India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval

Here are the latest developments from India on Saturday, April 18:

Ukraine's top security official hold talks in India

Ukraine'sNational Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov held separate meetings with India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday to discuss a peace roadmap in Russia's war in Ukraine, reports said.

Umerov, who is considered close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is visiting India.

Bilateral relations and the ongoing Ukraine war were discussed in the meetings, according to a statement from Jaishankar.

In his meeting with Umerov, National Security Advisor Doval reiterated India's "principled position and focus on peaceful resolution" in the war through dialogue and diplomacy, a statement from the foreign ministry's spokesperson said.

India has maintained a neutral stance between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine started in February, 2022 and has called for a negotiated settlement to the war.

New Delhi has close ties with both Russia and Western countries.

Modi plan of parliament expansion linked to quotas for women fails vote

In a major setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, its proposal to expand India's parliament to increase the representation of women lawmakers failed after not being able to secure enough votes in the Lok Sabha, the lower house. 

The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was tabled in a special sitting of the parliament earlier this week and the vote came after two days of fiery deliberations. 

How the bill failed

The reservation for women legislators was linked with a controversial bill for the redrawing of constituency boundaries across India based on population.

While the women's quota was favored by the broad political gamut, the proposal of redrawing of constituencies, called delimitation, was met with intense contention from the opposition. 

The opposition parties voiced concerns that the exercise would primarily benefit Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They accused the ruling government of using the women's quota issue as a ploy to manipulate the system and ​get more votes ahead of the 2029 polls. 

The government had asserted that constituency changes were needed to reflect shifts in population since seats were last fixed after ​a census in 1971.

In the end, the Bill failed to garner the special two-thirds majority it needed to pass.

Of the total 528 present and voting members, 298 members voted in its favour and 230 against.

"The amendment bill has fallen. They used an unconstitutional trick in the name ​of women to break the Constitution," Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi ​wrote on X right after the vote.

The Modi government has dismissed the claims and says it would continue to campaign for women's quotas.

"The ‌women of this country will not forgive you," Home Minister Amit ‌Shah ​said in parliament ahead of the vote.

Why is the parliament expansion bill important?

Had it passed, the measure could have significantly reshaped India's electoral landscape since Indian independence in 1947.

The delimitation exercise would have increased the number of seats in the lower house by two-fifths by ​the time of the ⁠next general elections in 2029.

India southern states were worried that population-based delimitation would unfairly tilt political representation in favor of the northern states, where population growth has been higher.

Modi and Shah gave assurances in the parliament that the current proportional representation of southern states would remain nearly unchanged and would not be affected by delimitation.

A 33% reservation for women in the national Parliament and state assemblies had been approved in legislation passed in 2023, but it was then ​linked to the ⁠next census, which is currently underway.

That meant the changes would have gone beyond the 2029 polls. 

The vote marks the first time that Modi's government has failed to pass a constitutional amendment bill since it came to power in 2014.

Welcome to our coverage

This is Dharvi Vaid Dhulia from DW's Studio in New Delhi, bringing you your daily news capsule of the biggest headlines in India. 

The capital witnessed a shift in weather last night, with a thunderstorm and heavy rains lashing parts of New Delhi.

However, a political storm that unfolded in the Indian parliament last evening is all the country is talking about today.

The hopes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to pass a bill for the expansion of Parliament — that would have brought forward the implementation of a 2023 law to reserve a third of the seats for women — were dashed by the opposition. 

In its 12 years in power, this is the first time that the Modi government has failed to get a constitutional amendment bill passed. 

In other news, Ukraine's top security official held meetings with India's foreign minister and national security advisor to discuss bilateral cooperation and peace prospects in the Ukraine war. 

We have all this and more. Stay tuned!