Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday (April 16, 2026) said the government, in the guise of implementing women’s reservation wanted to slice and dice constituencies to ensure its victory in the next elections and that this was an “open attack” on democracy. 

Also read: Parliament special sitting session highlights on April 16, 2026

Participating in the debate on the three Bills seeking changes to the women’s quota law, and the setting up of a Delimitation Commission, Ms. Gandhi alleged the first steps towards weakening democracy had been taken when the government made the media and the Election Commission of India captive, and was now taking that assault a step further. “If this Constitution Amendment Bill is passed, democracy will be finished in India,” she said.

Questioning the government’s intent, the Congress MP asked why 33% reservation for women could not be implemented immediately on the existing strength of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Instead, she noted, the Bill proposed increasing the strength of the House to up to 850 members after delimitation, to be carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census. She also alleged that the government was not waiting for Census 2027 because it did not want to account for the caste count that would for the first time provide data on the strength of all caste groups.

“This Bill is aimed at snatching the rights of OBCs (Other Backward Classes),” Ms. Gandhi said. She further alleged that the proposed Delimitation Commission would give three members the power to decide the fate of States and their parliamentary representation.

Placing the debate in a historical context Ms. Gandhi cited the Motilal Nehru Committee of 1928 and the Karachi Congress resolution on equal rights and later initiatives by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who introduced reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities.

She recalled that the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, though consensus had eluded it in the Lok Sabha, and said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018, urging him to take action on it.

Taking a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) claims, Ms. Gandhi said women could easily recognise men who tended to regularly “mislead” them. She reiterated that the Congress had supported the women’s reservation law when it was passed in 2023, and continued to back it but said the government’s current Bill had shifted the real debate away from women’s empowerment to delimitation.