Grave Betrayal Of Women: BJP Attacks Opposition After 131st Amendment Bill Fails In Lok Sabha

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday mounted a fierce offensive against the opposition following the failure of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha. The party accused rival groups of committing a “grave betrayal” against women by blocking a key reform aimed at providing 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies starting from the 2029 general elections.

The bill received 298 votes in favour and 230 against, falling short of the mandatory two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced that the bill did not pass as it failed to secure the necessary support during the voting.

This setback also stalls the associated delimitation exercise, which had emerged as a major point of contention between the government and the opposition.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah strongly criticised the opposition, stating on X that celebrating the defeat amounted to deceiving around 700 million women and insulting every woman who had waited decades for her rights. He warned that women across the country were watching who stood in the way of their progress, and they would hold opponents accountable during elections.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi remarked that the vote had clearly revealed which parties supported women’s reservation and which did not. He blamed the Congress party for causing the country to lose a historic opportunity, according to news agency ANI. Joshi added that the people would teach the Congress a lesson.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya described the day as “a very sad day for the democracy of the country” and accused the Congress of betraying women once again, as quoted by ANI.

Jagdambika Pal told ANI that the opposition’s face had been exposed, questioning their protest when the Modi government had advanced the timeline for women’s reservation to 2029 from the earlier 2034. He called it an insult to half the population of the country.

BJP president Nitin Nabin said the day could have been written in golden letters but was marred by what he termed a “grave betrayal” by the Congress and its allies.

On the other side, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi hailed the bill’s defeat as a victory for the Constitution. He posted on X that the government had attempted an “unconstitutional trick” in the name of women to undermine the Constitution, but the INDIA bloc had stopped it. Gandhi described the bill as anti-OBC, anti-SC-ST, and anti-national, claiming it targeted the South, North-East, North-West, and smaller states while dividing the country.

He asserted that the opposition would neither allow anyone’s rights to be snatched nor let the nation be divided. Opposition parties had opposed linking the women’s quota to a future census and delimitation, arguing that it would delay actual implementation.

This marked the first time in 12 years that a constitutional amendment proposed by the Modi government failed to pass, reflecting a rare unified stand by the INDIA bloc.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy called it a “Red-letter Day,” crediting Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for uniting the opposition to prevent what he described as a national disaster.

Also Read: Women’s Reservation Bill Fails in Lok Sabha: 298 Votes Fall Short of 326 Required for Passage