The Telangana Police on Saturday, April 17, placed the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President N. Ramchander Rao under house arrest after the party gave a call to hold a protest against the Congress following the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha a day before.
The NDA will launch a nationwide protest campaign on Saturday against the Opposition INDIA bloc over the issue.
Party leaders said protests will be organised at the district headquarters across the country, led by the BJP Mahila Morcha.
The campaign is intended to highlight what the NDA describes as an "anti-women agenda" of the Opposition, while mobilising public opinion around the issue.
The BJP-led Union government had linked the Women’s Reservation Bill with the delimitation. The Opposition had urged the government to immediately implement the 33% Women’s reservation independently without carrying out the delimitation exercise.
Speaking to IANS, State BJP Chief Ramchander Rao said, "The women of the country have been betrayed by Congress, and for that, we have decided to offer our protest before the Congress office. Today, several groups of our party decided to hold a protest outside the Chief Minister's (A. Revanth Reddy's) residence. The police came to my residence in the morning, and they have house-arrested me to prevent me from participating in the said program."
Hitting out at the ruling Congress government in the state, the State BJP Chief said, "We condemn the attitude of the Congress party with regard to the undemocratic way in which they have arrested me and then the way they are not allowing us (BJP) to protest."
"The INDIA bloc is anti-women; they have done great injustice to women. This is a defeat of women because of the INDIA bloc parties' political game," he added.
Earlier on Friday, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, was defeated in the Lok Sabha.
Following a fiery debate, the Opposition on Friday defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, with 298 members voting in favour of it and 230 against it.
The Bill sought to redistribute Lok Sabha seats on the basis of the 2011 Census to expedite the implementation of women’s reservation but failed to achieve the two-thirds majority mark of 352 required.
Though the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2023, the BJP government and its allies are portraying the stalling of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, as a setback to the political representation of women.
With IANS inputs