‘It is a tricky situation’: Congress walks a tightrope on women’s quota, delimitation ahead of CWC meet
“We can’t make it seem like we are against reservation, but we can’t let the government walk away,” says a party leader.
For the Congress, the challenge will be not to come across as opposing women’s reservation at a time when women have emerged as an important voting bloc in elections across states. (PTI Photo) The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is set to meet on Friday to formulate and navigate the party’s strategy on the proposed Constitutional amendments to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, or Women’s Reservation Act, and a Delimitation Bill that will likely be taken up in Parliament in a special session from April 16-18. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 3 pm.
While Congress leaders have maintained that they support reservation for women, the party has made it clear it will continue to oppose the timing of the Bills in the middle of state Assembly elections and the government’s move not to take all Opposition parties into confidence. The party’s top leadership has also raised concerns about the impact of the delimitation exercise on South Indian states, arguing that their representation in Parliament will reduce when seats in both Houses are increased.
In a statement on April 5, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh argued that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that the South Indian states “will not be hurt in any way” were “deceiving”.
The PM is upto his usual tricks of making misleading statements that are meant to deceive.
He says South Indian states will not be hurt in any way if the strength of the Lok Sabha is increased by 50% and the number of seats of each state in the Lok Sabha is also increased by…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 5, 2026
“If the strength of the Lok Sabha is increased by 50% and the number of seats of each state in the Lok Sabha is also increased by 50%. For example, the difference between UP’s and Kerala’s seats in Lok Sabha is now 60. Mr Modi’s proposal will increase it to 90. Similarly the difference between UP and Tamil Nadu will increase from 41 to at least 61. Such examples can be multiplied,” said Ramesh.
Ramesh and the Congress’s argument is that the government’s planned delimitation “will work more to the benefit of larger and populous states since their already large numbers will get further magnified”.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram has also targeted the government, and said the proposal to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha “will widen the difference between the more populous states and the southern States that have stabilised their population”.
For the Congress, the challenge will be not to come across as opposing women’s reservation at a time when women have emerged as an important voting bloc in elections across states.
“We have been consistent: that we support the legislation to give reservation to women in Parliament. But the way it is being done based on the 2011 Census makes it seem like the government’s only intent is to gather headlines and manage the narrative. There is no sincerity and that is something we have to put before the people. We can’t make it seem like we are against the reservation, but we can’t let the government walk away. It is a tricky situation for the party and the Opposition. We can’t be seen opposing reservation for women,” said a CWC member.
Another leader said that the CWC would also discuss a strategy on sub-categorisation within the reservation for women. “The party has made it clear that we support women from SC, ST and OBC communities getting reservation within the 33 per cent. But that has to be discussed at the CWC meeting – the form and shape of how we take this issue forward in public and with our allies will be discussed,” said another leader.
The Congress and its INDIA bloc allies are likely to meet in Delhi before the special session next week. The DMK, one of the Congress’s biggest allies, has also opposed the Centre’s plans. In a post on X on Thursday, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin called it a “calculated political restructuring” and said the exercise would “blatantly skew representation and tilt the balance of power in favour of northern states dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party, while silencing the voice of South India”. Stalin pointed out that the northern states stand to gain nearly double the seats while the South’s share stagnates at around 24%. “This is nothing short of penalising states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Keralam, and Telangana for their success in population control,” he said.
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