Ahead of the special Parliament session scheduled from April 16 to 18, Opposition parties under the INDIA bloc on Wednesday announced a united stand against the proposed Delimitation Bill, even as they reiterated support for women’s reservation in legislatures.

Addressing the media after a meeting of Opposition leaders, All India Congress Committee (AICC) President and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the alliance had completed internal discussions and reached a collective decision on the issue.

Kharge said on Wednesday (April 15, 2026) that the INDIA bloc leaders have concluded deliberations on the Delimitation Bill, and the group has “unitedly” decided to oppose the Bill.

He also clarified that the Opposition’s objections were limited to the delimitation exercise and not the Women’s Reservation legislation itself.

Kharge reiterated that the Opposition parties are not against the Women’s Reservation Bill, which he said was backed by the Congress in 2010 and in 2023, and was passed unanimously by Parliament.

"We are not against the Women’s Reservation Bill; we are in favour of it. However, the manner in which the government has introduced this bill is politically motivated, and we oppose it unitedly," he said.

The development comes a day after the Union government circulated copies of three proposed legislations — the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — ahead of the special session aimed at implementing the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act providing 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

According to the government, the package of Bills seeks to operationalise women’s reservation; however, Opposition parties argue that linking the reservation law with delimitation and census-based restructuring could significantly reshape parliamentary representation.

The proposed changes include increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 seats, potentially altering political representation, population-based seat distribution and Centre–State relations.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh raised concerns about the absence of safeguards for maintaining existing State-wise proportional representation.

Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary (communications), said, “The Bill states that Lok Sabha seats will go up by 50%. The government had also claimed that each State’s strength would be uniformly increased while maintaining the current ratio. However, there are no provisions in these bills to maintain the proportional strength of the State. Many states will lose representation in Lok Sabha.”

Several Opposition parties have objected to tying women’s reservation with delimitation based on the 2011 Census and the proposed expansion of legislative bodies, accusing the ruling NDA government of politicising the reform process.

Reiterating the Congress party’s formal position, party general secretary K. C. Venugopal said, “We are against the Delimitation Bill; we will vote against the Delimitation Bill.”

The meeting at Kharge’s residence brought together senior leaders from multiple INDIA bloc constituents, including representatives of the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD, CPI and CPI(M). Besides Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, those present included DMK’s T.R. Baalu, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Trinamool Congress’s Sagarika Ghosh, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, and NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, while Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joined the discussions virtually.