Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has backed Rahul Gandhi in the ongoing political dispute over the implementation of women’s reservation, accusing the government of making a “mischievous” link between the women’s quota and the delimitation exercise.
Chidambaram’s remarks came a day after a public exchange between Rahul Gandhi and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju over the implementation of the 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
Rahul Gandhi had questioned why the women’s reservation law needed to be tied to delimitation and argued that the government could implement the quota without waiting for the completion of the exercise. Rijiju, however, defended the government’s position and said the 2023 law itself links implementation of the reservation with census and delimitation.
Chidambaram supported Gandhi’s argument, saying the reservation has already been provided for through the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023. He argued that the government could take steps to make the quota operational before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections if the linkage with delimitation and census requirements were removed.
The Congress leader criticised the Centre for presenting delimitation as an unavoidable prerequisite for implementing women’s reservation. He suggested that the two issues could be dealt with separately and that the government should focus on giving effect to the constitutional provision rather than delaying it.
The dispute has gained fresh momentum as the Centre has renewed efforts to build political consensus around proposed changes involving delimitation and women’s representation ahead of the 2029 general elections. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju recently held discussions with Rahul Gandhi, but the meeting failed to produce a breakthrough, with Congress maintaining its existing position on the issue.
The 106th Constitutional Amendment, passed by Parliament in 2023, provides for reserving roughly one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women. However, its implementation is linked to the completion of a census followed by delimitation, which has become the central point of the current political disagreement.
Congress has argued that women should not have to wait for a major restructuring of parliamentary constituencies to receive the promised representation. The party has also raised concerns about the political and regional implications of delimitation.
The government, meanwhile, has maintained that the constitutional framework must be followed and that delimitation is an important part of implementing the reservation law.
With both sides continuing to hold their positions, the issue is likely to remain a major political flashpoint as Parliament moves towards the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. Chidambaram’s intervention adds another senior Congress voice to Rahul Gandhi’s demand that women’s reservation should be implemented without being unnecessarily delayed by the delimitation process.
