Even if there are 543 or 850 seats, BJP will win: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Delimitation

Speaking with the reporters outside the Parliament, Joshi said that the Centre delinked the census from delimitation to ensure women's reservation and increase the overall seats in the Parliament.

"The question is not about whether to do delimitation or not. Delimitation has happened before, too. To increase the number, they say that the BJP will benefit from increasing the numbers. We are delinking it from the census. By delinking and doing delimitation, we are making provisions for our sisters who will come, and the overall numbers are also increasing. Why are the numbers increasing? Because when the population was 300-400 million, the number was 544, and now it has become 1.4 billion. So that's why, when we want to increase the number, delimitation was necessary," he said.

Lambasting the Congress over the defeat of the Constitution Amendment for the Women's Reservation Bill, Joshi said that the increase in the number of seats would not have benefited the INDIA bloc, alleging that the people do not have "faith in Congress's leadership."

"The people voting are the same. It's not that they aren't voting for you because of delimitation. People are rejecting you because of your intentions towards them, your policies, and your behaviour. You have already prevented women from coming here. You tried to stop a large number of women who were supposed to enter after the passage of this bill, which Congress stopped... People don't have faith in the leadership of Congress or its policies. People have faith in PM Modi's leadership and his policies; that's why they vote for us. Even if there are 800 or 850 seats, the BJP will win. If the election is held for 543 seats, the BJP will win; there's no doubt about it. They are confused," he stated.

The Union Minister further responded to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's request to introduce a constitutional amendment to postpone constituency delimitation for another 25 years, stating that the decision will be taken by the party leadership and accused the opposition of allegedly creating a north-south divide.

"See, the question of what to do next will be decided by our leadership. As I said before, the INDI alliance or the Congress party won't benefit from an increase or decrease in the number of seats or constituencies. If the BJP is getting votes, we will get votes even in 544 seats. We will get the majority. If it becomes 850, we will get it because the public has accepted Modi ji's leadership. If they think increasing the number will benefit the BJP in UP or Madhya Pradesh, it will be more here too. And this north-south divide they are creating is the biggest betrayal of the country," he stated.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu CM Stalin called the defeat of the Bill by opposition members a "hammer blow" to attempts at dividing the country and added that the development demonstrated growing unity among opposition parties.

Describing the outcome as "just the beginning," Stalin claimed that, for the first time in 12 years, a constitutional amendment bill introduced by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to pass in Parliament.

The remarks come a day after the BJP-led government failed to secure the required two-thirds majority to pass the amendment bill. In the Lok Sabha voting, 298 members supported the bill while 230 opposed it. (ANI)