Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, on Thursday, July 16, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene an All-Party meeting to discuss the government's proposals regarding delimitation. It is speculated that the Modi government is planning to reintroduce the revised 131st Amendment Bill in the upcoming monsoon session of the Parliament.
In his letter, Kharge said that he has been writing to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, since March, requesting the Union Government to convene the All-Party meeting over Delimitation. “Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted,” he said.
Citing media reports over the government’s intent to reintroduce the Bill on delimitation, Kharge requested the Prime Minister to convene the meeting, allowing the Opposition to read the Bill in detail before it is introduced in Parliament.
The Congress chief's letter comes days after it emerged that the government is learnt to be working on multiple formulations to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50% to assuage the concerns of southern states, as it seeks to operationalise a fresh draft of the Constitution amendment Bill on women's quota law.
The government had earlier introduced the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, along with the delimitation Bill, in the Lok Sabha on April 16. The Bill proposed using the 2011 Census to redraw parliamentary constituencies, increasing the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850, and bringing women’s reservation into effect sooner.
However, the Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha as it did not receive the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution. After this, the government withdrew the related delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill.
Opposition parties, particularly from South India, opposed the proposal, saying that a population-based delimitation exercise could reduce the share of Lok Sabha seats held by southern states and increase the influence of northern states with faster population growth. The government said every state would get a 50% increase in seats. However, the Opposition pointed out that it was not clearly guaranteed in the Bill.
Meanwhile, according to reports, senior Congress leaders held a meeting on Thursday to discuss the party's strategy during the Monsoon session of Parliament, which is scheduled to begin from July 20.