Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday urged the Centre to immediately implement the law providing 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, reported the PTI.
Speaking in Mumbai, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister said the issue of delimitation is not about any single party’s political future but concerns the future of the nation.
Uddhav Thackeray said that the process of delimitation, or redrawing of constituencies, should be kept on hold for now as it is a matter of national importance requiring wider consultation and discussion.
He stressed that the priority should be implementing women’s reservation before moving ahead with any boundary restructuring exercise.
Parliamentary debate on women’s quota bill
His remarks came on the day Parliament began a three-day special session to discuss bills related to amendments in the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, also known as the Women’s Reservation Act 2023.
The proposals are aimed at implementing the quota by 2029 and setting up a delimitation commission for the process.
Key bills introduced in LS
The government introduced the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha after a division of votes.
Two additional bills—the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill—were also introduced. These aim to extend the women’s reservation framework to Union Territories including Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
Proposed expansion of Lok Sabha
As per the amendment proposal, the strength of the Lok Sabha may increase from 543 to a maximum of 850 seats following delimitation based on the latest census.
The expansion is intended to operationalise the women’s reservation law before the 2029 general elections.
Raut dismisses govt’s `illusion`
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that senior leaders have been given responsibility to bring parties together. He noted that Uddhav Thackeray shares good relations with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and has been asked to coordinate with her to ensure her party’s MPs attend the session and vote against the bill, reported the PTI.
Uddhav Thackeray also joined a meeting of opposition leaders through video conferencing as part of these efforts, reported PTI.
Raut claimed that the government believes MPs from states, such as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry may skip the session due to elections in their respective states. Rejecting this, he said, “The government is under the illusion. All TMC and DMK MPs and members from Kerala will be in Parliament,” reported the news agency.
(with PTI inputs)
