5 min readApr 12, 2026 06:45 AM IST First published on: Apr 12, 2026 at 06:45 AM ISTThe two Houses of Parliament were adjourned on April 2, 2026 after completion of the financial business of the Budget session. It was the right time to adjourn — because polling in the state Assembly elections of Assam, Kerala and UT of Puducherry had been scheduled on April 9, and barely a week was left for MPs to rush to their constituencies and join the election campaign. Besides, nominations for the state Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal had commenced on March 30 and polling was fixed on April 23 (and April 29 in West Bengal), and MPs were anxious to return to their constituencies. It was the general belief that there was no urgent business to transact before the end of April.S.I.R. MischiefThere was, in fact, no urgent business. The unfinished task was to complete the elections that were underway without further misadventures. S.I.R. was not a misadventure but deliberate mischief. S.I.R. was intended to disenfranchise millions of citizens. (See ‘Millions of Citizen non-voters!’, Indian Express, March 22, 2026).AdvertisementExcept for some rash political speeches, the election process was indeed progressing. The S.I.R. battle of West Bengal was being fought in the Supreme Court. It is unfortunate that no one seemed to have brought to the notice of the Court that, on average, 10 per cent of the adult population of S.I.R.-impacted states had been struck off the electoral rolls and disenfranchised. These included Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.Whose Idea?Apparently, an idea germinated in the minds of the higher echelons of the BJP that some controversy must be sparked before the large states of Tamil Nadu (234 seats) and West Bengal (294 seats) went to polls. The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs was instructed to broach the subject of “implementation of the Constitution 106th Amendment Act” to Mr Mallikarjun Kharge. The Amendment was passed by Parliament in September 2023, and was ignored by the government for 30 months. Suddenly, the government woke up. There was an exchange of letters between the Minister and the Opposition parties. Mr Kharge suggested an All-Party meeting after April 29. The Minister’s letter of March 26 is both interesting and intriguing: he said “such a timeline will delay the implementation of women’s reservation in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies” and “may adversely impact the feasibility of implementing the provisions of the Act in time for the 2029 General Election”. This is pure baloney. April 16 and April 29 would make no difference.When did the BJP hit-team wake up to the idea of implementing expeditiously women’s reservation in Parliament? Certainly not when Parliament passed the Constitution 106th Amendment Bill in September 2023. The Bill was so worded that the reservation would not — and could not — be implemented until after 2029, because Article 334A reads: “…the provisions of the Constitution relating to reservation of seats for women in the House of the People…shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after commencement of the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 have been published…”AdvertisementWho introduced the word ‘after’ thrice in the Bill, and why? I had highlighted this point in an earlier column (See ‘Reservation when? After, after, after’, Indian Express, September 24, 2023). We asked questions about the implementation; the government was silent. Going by the sequence in Article 334A, and the time taken to complete the last Census and time taken to complete the last delimitation (6 years!), it was clear that the Constitution 106th Amendment Bill was a leisurely project.you may likeWin or LoseSuddenly, the government is in a tearing hurry that it intends to re-convene Parliament on April 16-18. It was speculated that the government would bring Bill(s) to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 and reserve one-third of the seats for women. The Hon’ble Prime Minister has since confirmed the speculation. This would require a Constitution Amendment Bill passed with a special majority in each House — one-half of the strength of the House and two-thirds of the members present and voting. The BJP and its allies and supporters do not have a two-thirds majority of members in the Lok Sabha. Yet, the government is taking the risk. Why?The government hopes that the Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu (39) and West Bengal (28) will be absent because of the impending polling date of April 23. The government’s intentions are not honest or bonafide. Win or lose the battle in the Lok Sabha, the BJP will take the issue to the hustings. If the BJP passed the Bill, it will triumphantly crow that the number of seats reserved for women has been increased from 182 to 272. If it lost, it will squarely blame the Opposition.The BJP does not care about the downside of increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha to 816 members. The Lok Sabha will be unwieldy; a member will get to speak rarely, and barely for a few minutes; and, crucially, it will widen the difference between the voting strength of the populous states and the Southern states that have stabilised their population. It is the usual BJP ploy: divide and rule.The idea is debatable, the timing is deplorable.