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A sharp political exchange unfolded in the Lok Sabha on Thursday as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned the Centre's urgency over the women's reservation Bill and demanded completion of the census before moving ahead with delimitation-related proposals.
Addressing the Lower House of the parliament, Yadav said, "Why are you in such a hurry. Why is the Centre rushing for women's reservation? Start with the Census first. Samajwadi Party is for women's reservation, but is opposed to the approach via delimitation. As soon as the census is done, we will ask for the caste census, and then the reservation issue will come. Hence, you want to do dhokha with us (cheat us.)" In response to Yadav, Union Home Minister Amit Shah strongly rejected any proposal for religion-based reservation, stating in the Lok Sabha that such a provision would be unconstitutional. He asserted that a reservation cannot be granted based on religion. Shah said, "Akhilesh Yadav asked why the census is not being conducted. I want to inform the entire country that the census process has already begun. The government has taken a decision to conduct a caste census, and the enumeration is being carried out along with caste data. If it were up to the Samajwadi Party, they would even assign castes to households. Dharmendra Yadav spoke about giving reservations to Muslim women. This is unconstitutional. Reservation based on religion is unconstitutional." Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav opposed all three bills introduced by the government in the Lok Sabha, while asserting that his party is a strong supporter of women's reservation. "We oppose the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and Delimitation Bill, 2026...There is no other party which is a bigger supporter of women's reservation," he said. The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Delimitation Bill, 2026, were introduced by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, by Home Minister Amit Shah. The government has convened a special sitting of Parliament on April 16,17,18 to pass the amendment to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. The Law Minister is also slated to move a proposal in the Lok Sabha to suspend the provisions of Rule 66 with the objective of passing the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill and the Delimitation Bill together. The motion states that the this House "do suspend the proviso to rule 66 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha in its application to the motions for taking into consideration and passing of the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in as much as these are dependent upon the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, 2026". The government has been seeking opposition support for passing the amendment bill to implement the women's reservation bill from the 2029 Lok Sabha polls on the basis of the 2011 census. (ANI)
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