The Congress on Wednesday alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was “breaking” the Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena to secure a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, PTI reported. The “real and ultimate target” of this was to amend the Constitution and end reservation, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told the news agency in an interview.
Both the Trinamool Congress and the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray-led Shiv Sena have faced defections and internal rebellions in recent weeks.
On June 14, TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said that 20 of the party’s Lok Sabha MPs will merge with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party and back the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
On Monday, six MPs from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) switched to the rival faction of the party led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, which is part of the NDA. The defections increased the Shinde faction’s tally in the Lok Sabha to 13.
On Wednesday, Ramesh alleged that Shah was taking “revenge for the humiliation he was forced to suffer” after a proposed constitutional amendment bill to redraw the boundaries of electoral constituencies was defeated in Parliament in April.
The 2026 Constitution 131st Amendment Bill, one of three draft legislations, required a two-thirds majority of votes in Parliament to pass. The ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a two-thirds majority of MPs in any House. Therefore, it required the support of Opposition parties to pass the amendment.
The consideration of the bill was rejected by the House with 298 MPs voting in its favour and 230 against. With 528 MPs present in the Lower House, the bill would have required the support of 352 of them.
The government decided to withdraw the two other bills, saying that they were linked to the Constitution Amendment Bill and therefore could not be taken up for consideration separately.
On Wednesday, Ramesh said that Shah had promised Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would get the three delimitation bills passed.
“...[Shah] could not muster more than 298 votes in the Lok Sabha,” he told PTI. “And he needed 362 for two-thirds majority. Now he is busy in tod-phod ki rajneeti [politics of sabotage].”
The Congress leader added that the “truth of our 2024 campaign” was becoming apparent. “Why 400 paar? [Why beyond 400?]” Ramesh told PTI. “They were asking for 400 seats so that they could amend the Constitution and end reservation”.
Ramesh claimed that while delimitation was the immediate target for the BJP, the ultimate goal was to end reservations.
The Congress leader said that his party was opposed to the delimitation exercise not only because of a 50% increase in seats but also related to how an 800-member Lok Sabha would function, PTI reported.
“In 500 odd MPs, they do not get a chance to speak and you want to get 815 MPs,” Ramesh told the news agency. “For whom are you doing this? And what happens to the Rajya Sabha? There are questions about that and the government is silent.”
The Congress leader added that women’s reservation in Parliament should be implemented from the next Lok Sabha elections with 543 seats, with one-third of them reserved for women, PTI reported.
Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
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