Women's quota bill an attempt to change electoral map: Rahul Gandhi

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack in Parliament, accusing the government of using the proposed linkage between the Women's Reservation framework and delimitation to alter India's electoral landscape. Gandhi argued that the Women's Reservation Bill passed in 2023 was the "real legislation", and alleged that the current move to tie its implementation to delimitation was a deliberate attempt to redraw political boundaries. "The first truth is that this is not a women's bill. This has nothing to do with the empowerment of women. This is an attempt to change the electoral map of India," he added. On delimitation, Gandhi alleged the BJP was acting out of political insecurity. "You are scared of the erosion of your strength and are trying to rejig the Indian political map. You did it in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, and now imagine you can do it across India," he said.

VIDEO | Parliament Session: Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) says, “It is a shameful act. Instead of providing women’s reservation, which is very easy to do, and which every opposition member is ready to support right now, they should bring back the… pic.twitter.com/O3tP37gmmz

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 17, 2026

BJP MP Hema Malini reacted to Rahul Gandhi's speech in Lok Sabha, saying, "All I can say is that it was entertaining, but there was nothing concrete in it... Calling the Prime Minister a magician is not right. It is unparliamentary."