Congress party’s general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that former BJP national president and the trusted lieutenant of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, is aggressively splitting regional parties like the Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress to increase the BJP’s strength to a two-thirds majority and ultimately “amend the Constitution.”
“That was the whole logic of '400 paar', and now you are seeing why he is splitting all these parties, he is splitting up parties in his search for a two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said in an interview with news agency PTI.
He said that the Congress’ charge that the BJP was aiming for over 400 seats in the Parliament elections to amend the Constitution and “finish off reservation” has been vindicated with the latest actions of the BJP. In the 2024 General elections, the BJP’s slogan was ‘Ab ki baar 400 paar’. The Modi-led party expected to win over 400 seats, however the party’s strength had reduced to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Speaking of the defections engineered by the BJP, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said: “The single cause for this is the humiliation that the self-styled Chanakya of Indian politics suffered on the 17th of April in the Lok Sabha. He promised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would get the three delimitation bills passed. He could not muster more than 298 votes in the Lok Sabha.” Recently, the BJP orchestrated ‘Operation Tiger’ and poached six MPs from the Shiv Sena (UBT) camp. Similarly, following the victory of the BJP in West Bengal Assembly elections, 20 TMC MPs have aligned themselves with the BJP-led NDA. A few days earlier, seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs joined the BJP.
On April 17, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, failed to secure a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha. While 298 votes were received in its favour, it fell short of 54 votes of the required 352. This was a historic victory for the Opposition.
The Congress MP said that the BJP’s bluff to push for delimitation under the garb of Women’s Reservation was called out by the Opposition.
“I think he decided to take revenge on that day for that humiliation he had been forced to suffer, and now he is busy with the 'todh-phod ki rajniti'. He broke the TMC, he's breaking the Shiv Sena, all in his search for a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha.”
He added: “you're seeing the truth of our 2024 campaign. They were asking for '400 paar' so that they can amend the Constitution to finish off reservation.”
According to the Congress MP, the BJP’s immediate target is the delimitation bill but the “real target is ending reservation.”
