The Congress and BJP sparred on Saturday over the women's quota and delimitation bills after Rahul Gandhi said that no country can be successful if its women do not express themselves, prompting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to call it a "visible change of heart" and express the hope that the opposition party will support the proposed legislation "unconditionally".
NEW DELHI — The Congress and BJP sparred on Saturday over the women's quota and delimitation bills after Rahul Gandhi said that no country can be successful if its women do not express themselves, prompting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to call it a "visible change of heart" and express the hope that the opposition party will support the proposed legislation "unconditionally".
Responding to Rijiju's comments on X, Gandhi hit back, saying, "Mr Rijiju, who would know better than you, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, that the Women's Reservation Bill 2023 has already been passed unanimously, with the full support of the Congress."
"The question is why has it still not been implemented even after three years, and why do you now want to unnecessarily link it to delimitation?" Gandhi asked in a post on X.
"Implement the 2023 law. Without any conditions", he added.
Responding to Gandhi's retort, Rijju said the Congress leader knows "very well" that the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People and Legislative Assembly of the State is provided in the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023.
He said that Gandhi also knows that it shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken based on the census figures published after the year 2023, which means the census figures published after the year 2026.
"The exercise for publishing the census figures after the year 2026 is currently underway. However, this may take substantial time due to the caste-based census to be finally published. In view of this, it may result in considerable delay in the implementation of women reservation, at least not before the 2034 General Elections," the senior BJP leader said.
Therefore, to implement the women reservation at the next general elections in 2029, the delimitation exercise needs to be undertaken at the earliest, based on the latest available Census figures, as published, he added.
Rijiju said the implementation methodology has been proposed under the Delimitation Bill 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha along with the amendments to the Constitution.
However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced for this purpose, has been defeated, the minister said.
"Also, a reminder to Rahul Gandhi, there's no woman in Karnataka DK Shivakumar's Cabinet! This raises serious questions over Congress's stand on 33% women quota," Rijiju said in another post on X.
Reacting to the criticism, Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said, "We are the ones who piloted (women's reservation bill), we are the ones who passed (the bill)."
"The Congress party believes in it (giving priority to women). You know how many seats we gave (to women) in Parliament, I think you remember. So, in Karnataka, definitely we are sorting out that issue. Rijiju may not worry about the Congress Party," the chief minister said.
Wading into the issue, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said that the country is watching how the Congress is now "trampling" on the greater representation for women while simultaneously "resisting proportional representation" for the states.
However, Congress' media and publicity department chairman Pawan Khera reiterated the charge that the government is using women's reservation as a "smokescreen" to sneak through delimitation based on the 2011 Census.
On Friday, Gandhi said no country can be successful and will remain stunted if its women do not express themselves.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said it is important to bring women back into the conversation and allow them to do what they want to do.
His remarks in an Instagram post came as an addition to his reply made during his Thursday's "Ask Me Anything" session.
Reacting to Gandhi's remarks, Rijiu said in a post on X, "This seems to be a positive message from the Congress Party. There's a visible change of heart in Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji about women.
"Now, I hope Congress Party will support the Women's Reservation Bill unconditionally."
Rijiju on Thursday had a telephonic conversation with Gandhi to seek support for the passage of the women's reservation and delimitation bills, but the leader of opposition insisted on convening an all-party meeting on the proposed legislation, sources aware of the matter had said.
This was the second time in a couple of days that the parliamentary affairs minister spoke with Gandhi on the phone. The minister also met him twice in 10 days for smooth functioning of the House.
"I had a productive conversation with Rahul Gandhi. I have made a request on a few specific issues and also discussed other matters. We expect continuous communication and coordinated action with the Congress and other opposition parties," Rijiju had told reporters in the Parliament House complex on Thursday.
Amid the war of words between Rijiju and Gandhi on X, BJP's Amit Malviya said the 2023 law cannot be viewed in isolation from the constitutional framework that determines how seats are allocated.
The proposed delimitation exercise is precisely about ensuring fair and proportionate representation of states and the Congress cannot pretend to support one kind of representation while blocking another, he added.
"If Congress truly believes in women's representation, let it listen to the people's voice instead of creating political roadblocks. Otherwise, Congress is not defending democracy or federalism. It is simply scripting its own marginalisation," Malviya said on X.
However, Khera said Rjiju's "six-point reply" to Gandhi's reaction did "little more than expose" the government's "incompetence and malicious intentions".
"Five of your six points merely repeat obvious facts about the Women's Reservation Act, 2023 - details Google can provide. Your only argument is in Point 3: that because the Census cannot be published in time, the government wants to abandon the statutory Census requirement and conduct delimitation using 15-year-old obsolete data to implement 33 per cent women's reservation," the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said on X.
"That excuse has already been demolished. Smt. Sonia Gandhi pointed out in her April 2026 article in The Hindu that Bihar and Telangana carried out comprehensive caste surveys in their respective states in less than six months," he added.
Khera alleged that the government is using women's reservation as a "smokescreen" to sneak through delimitation based on the 2011 Census.
"Because you know that, without it, your party faces electoral decimation. So let's be clear: The Census is not the problem. Your government is. You don't care about women's representation. You care about extending the fast-fading political career of your ageing male leadership," the Congress leader said on Rijiju's remarks.