Voting on three bills related to women's reservation is taking place on Friday, the second day of the special session of Parliament that began on Thursday. Prior to this, a lengthy debate took place on these three bills, in which members of all parties presented their views.

The government has suffered a defeat in the Lok Sabha on the Constitutional Amendment Bill related to women's reservation. As a constitutional amendment, the government needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill. The bill received 298 votes in favor, while the opposition received 230. A total of 528 MPs voted for the bill, which is 352, a two-thirds majority. However, only 298 votes were cast in favor, resulting in the bill being defeated by 54 votes. Speaker Om Birla announced this after the vote. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said, "The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill could not be passed because it did not receive a two-thirds majority during the House vote."

On Thursday, the first day of the special session of Parliament, these three bills were debated late into the night, and continued for several hours on Friday. Voting has now begun in the Lok Sabha. After discussion, the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the bill in the House. Voting is currently underway. It was reported that the bill was discussed for 21 hours. A total of 130 MPs expressed their views, including 56 women.

Parliament was to vote on these three bills:

1. The Constitutional 131st Amendment Bill, 2026:  Proposes an increase in the Lok Sabha to 850 seats, with 815 seats from states and 35 from union territories.
   
   (Voting result: A total of 528 votes were cast in the Lok Sabha for the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Amendment Bill. 298 voted in favor, while 230 voted against. The bill required 326 votes to pass, so it failed to pass.)
2. Delimitation Amendment Bill, 2026:  The definition of population for delimitation will be changed to take the 2011 census as the basis.
3. Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026: This bill amends the laws of Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir to implement the delimitation and women's reservation bills.

Amit Shah criticized Rahul Gandhi's language

Earlier, responding to the debate, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "I was listening to the speech of the Leader of the Opposition. This language is against the decorum of the House... abusive words are used, there is a lot of unparliamentary language... what kind of behaviour is this from the Leader of the Opposition, what kind of language is this? Does he think that the country is not listening to his language? He insults constitutional institutions... he leaves the session and goes abroad... you have very senior people in the art of speaking in the House, learn from them, or learn from Priyanka Gandhi."

Rahul Gandhi said – this has nothing to do with women empowerment, it is an attempt to change the electoral map.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi said during the debate, "Some truth needs to be told in this House. This is not a women's reservation bill; it has nothing to do with women's empowerment. What was passed in 2023 was a women's reservation bill." He alleged that "this is an attempt to change the country's electoral map by hiding behind the women of India."

 PC:NDTVINDIA