Women's reservation: Centre weighs special session this month after April defeat

The Union government is considering a special session of Parliament later in October 2026 to try again to pass bills on delimitation and women's reservation, according to reports on Friday, October 16, 2026 that cite government sources. No dates have been announced. One report says the notification could come next week. Another says the dates may be planned around the BRICS Parliamentary Forum, which Samvidhan Sadan will host on October 26 and 27. The plan follows the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026. That bill would have let the one-third quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies start sooner. The government is reported to be talking to the DMK and other parties to find the two-thirds majority a constitutional amendment needs.

Women's reservation in legislatures is already law, but it has not yet changed who sits in Parliament. The 2023 Act gives women one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Under Article 334A of the Constitution, though, the quota can begin only after a census is done and constituencies are redrawn through delimitation. An October 2026 academic paper notes that none of these steps, census, delimitation or the rotation of reserved seats, has been completed. So the quota is still not working.

The government's answer in April was a package. It would have redrawn seats using the 2011 Census and enlarged the Lok Sabha to 850 seats, so that the women's quota could apply sooner. Analysts said the aim was to bring it in by the 2029 general election. The plan failed. It won a simple majority but not the two-thirds a constitutional amendment needs. Reports describe it as the first time a constitutional amendment brought by the Modi government did not pass. The delimitation bill that went with it was then withdrawn.

The main dispute is about delimitation, not about the quota itself. Opposition members, many from southern states, argue that redrawing seats by population would punish states that have kept their population growth down. They have asked for the women's quota to be separated from delimitation altogether. The government's position, as Home Minister Amit Shah put it in the Lok Sabha, is that the 2023 Act ties women's reservation to the delimitation carried out after the census conducted after 2026.

The numbers in the House may have changed. Reports say 20 Trinamool Congress MPs and six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs have moved to the ruling side. The DMK left the INDIA bloc after splitting with the Congress following the Tamil Nadu elections. Reports say the Centre is in touch with it, though neither side has confirmed this.

The April vote in numbers: Measure | Figure MPs voting | 528 Votes in favour | 298 Votes against | 230 Votes needed (two-thirds) | 352 Shortfall | 54

Short-term: If a session is called, the government would need about 54 more votes than it got in April, if the same number of MPs vote. The DMK's position will be closely watched.

Long-term: If an amendment passes, women's reservation could start earlier than the current law allows, which would bring many more women into the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. If it fails again, the quota stays tied to a future census and delimitation, with no fixed start date.

Who is affected: Women in politics and those who want to enter it, political parties that will need to field more women candidates, voters in constituencies that could be redrawn or reserved, and southern states worried about their share of seats.

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