Centre is likely to renew its push to get through the delimitation bill and the 33 per cent women reservation bill with a special session of the Parliament this month. The reports regarding convening of the special session comes as the Monsoon Session is yet to be prorogued as 64 days have been passed since both the Houses were adjourned sine die.
Amid buzz, Rajya Sabha LoP and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has written his fourth letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking an all-party meeting to discuss the proposal before its finalisation and Cabinet approval.
In a letter sent on Friday, Kharge described the 64-day gap since the Monsoon Session was adjourned sine die as 'unprecedented.' "It has already been 64 days since the Monsoon Session of Parliament was adjourned sine die on August 13, 2026 and both Houses of Parliament are yet to be prorogued. This scenario is unprecedented," wrote Kharge.
Getting the bill passed in both the Houses has emerged as a major challenge for the Modi government as it stands alone in the list of legislations that the government introduced and failed to get through. The bill was introduced in the Parliament on April 16 and crashed because the ruling-NDA didn't have a special two-third majority in Lok Sabha.
More MPs than last time but hard to crack remaining ones
The number game has changed in favour of the NDA since then but still remains a hard nut to crack, leaving questions over BJP's strategy behind the expected reintroduction of the legislation. The BJP-led NDA had 293 seats in Lok Sabha until breakaway by 6 Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs and 20 Trinamool Congress MPs.
All of them have joined the NDA, taking the total alliance tally in the lower house to 318. As Delimitation and Women's reservation legislations are constitutional bills, the government will have to secure two-third majority of current strength of the Lok Sabha which is 360.
The BJP still needs support from at least 42 MPs. Reports suggest that the ruling party is in talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagram (DMK) which has 22 MPs in the house.
MK Stalin-led DMK was among the leading faces who had opposed the bill back in April, arguing that it disproportionately benefits northern states.
However, earlier reports have stated that Centre is ready to grant an assurance on straight 50 per cent increase across all states, something that several opposition leaders, including NCP(SP)'s Supriya Sule had demanded to be included in the draft proposal first.
Andhra Pradesh opposition party YSRCP had also asked for a written assurance on the bill regarding proportionate increase granting in-principle support to the legislations.
Convincing DMK, NCP-SP and YSRCP would take the NDA to 351 as DMK, NCP-SP and YSRCP have 22, 8 and 3 Lok Sabha MPs respectively. Although the parties have not yet confirmed their support, the real challenge will only begin even if they commit voting in favour as swaying required 9 MPs of the remaining would be a tougher job.
Out of 7 Independent candidates, NDA is unlikely to get more than 1-2 votes. Besides, almost every INDIA bloc party is either a part of a coalition state government, like JMM, VCK, MDMK, IUML, JKNC and left factions among others or are a staunch critic of the ruling NDA like RJD, Mamata-led TMC Shiv Sena UBT and Samajwadi Party, among others.
The BJP could look up to the unaligned opposition like SAD which has one seat but it will have to breach the INDIA bloc fortress to get more support as this time the difference to get the legislations through would be a last-vote game.