Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that the Congress and its ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) “derailed” the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament because of their “hatred and petty politics”. Addressing an election rally in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, he accused the ruling DMK of harming women in the state by enabling violence and not supporting them in the Lok Sabha by backing the legislation.
“Today, amid my people, I want to express my pain and anger. In 2023, we passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, and on the 16th of this month, we took a historic step to move towards implementing women’s reservation in Parliament and Assemblies. I personally appealed to all the political parties to support this. I told them clearly that they may take the credit; I have no objection. I only wanted sisters from ordinary families to come to the Parliament and Assemblies in greater numbers…But unfortunately, this noble effort was derailed by DMK and Congress, as they made the legislation a target of hatred and petty politics,” he said.
The Centre on Friday couldn’t pass the bill required to amend the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha. The Centre needed a two-thirds majority to get the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, passed, but fell short of the mark. The proposed legislation saw 298 MPs voting in its favour and 230 voting against.
Two other bills linked to the quota exercise — including one for delimitation and increasing the number of seats in the Lok Sabha — were not put to a vote.
PM Modi attacked the DMK for its staunch opposition to the delimitation exercise, saying the number of Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu would have increased.
“DMK has no achievements to showcase, no real issues to raise. This is why they resorted to spreading false fears about a reduction in Tamil Nadu’s seats. DMK said earlier that the current proportional representation must be maintained, and we proposed it as well. But now they have made a U-turn,” he said.
“DMK harms women in Tamil Nadu by enabling violence and crime. They do not stand with women in Parliament either, but now their anti-women ideology will definitely get a befitting reply,” he added.
Referring to the BJP’s dynasty politics charge, PM Modi described the Congress and the DMK as “one-family parties”.
“Why does it trouble the DMK and the Congress to see women rise? These one-family parties want power to remain confined within their own families,” he alleged.
The Delimitation Bill, 2026, along with the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Through the inter-linked legislations, the government intended to expand the Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 to 850 seats, and provide a 33 per cent reservation to women.