Sharad Pawar’s MPs to meet PM Modi; Congress asks them to delink women’s quota, delimitation | India News
NEW DELHI: A delegation of eight MPs from Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.Ahead of the meeting, the Congress has urged its alliance partner to convey the INDIA bloc’s opposition to linking the implementation of women’s reservation with the proposed delimitation exercise.AICC secretary Sachin Sawant urged the NCP (SP) delegation to press Modi for the immediate implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act, passed in 2023, without waiting for delimitation.“It is learnt that the MPs of the Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday regarding issues concerning Maharashtra. We urge them to firmly convey to Prime Minister Modi that the INDIA Alliance’s unequivocal position is that the Women’s Reservation Act, passed in 2023, must be implemented immediately and should not be linked to delimitation,” Sawant posted on X on Sunday.“It is important that the unity of the INDIA Alliance and its opposition to the Modi government on this issue is made unequivocally clear,” he added.NCP (SP) MPs to raise Maharashtra issuesThe Congress’ appeal comes ahead of the meeting between PM Modi and eight NCP (SP) MPs, led by party MP Supriya Sule.Sule had said on Saturday that the delegation would raise issues affecting Maharashtra, including farmer suicides, the water crisis and problems caused by rapid urbanisation.“We – some MPs and I – were talking about that Prime Minister must be apprised about the problems in Maharashtra. There is water related issues, farmer suicides, and problems being faced due to urbanisation,” Sule said at a press conference in Mumbai.BJP leader Navneet Rana welcomed the proposed meeting, saying elected representatives should be able to raise issues concerning Maharashtra’s development with the Prime Minister.“I feel that if MPs from Sharad Pawar‘s party are meeting PM Modi for the sake of Maharashtra’s development–driven by the belief that the state needs to progress further–then such a meeting is certainly not a bad thing,” Rana said.“While all sorts of speculations are being made, I believe any such speculation ultimately bodes well for Maharashtra; there could be nothing better than them approaching the PM to advocate for the state’s development,” she added.The dispute centres on the government’s proposed delimitation exercise and its connection with the implementation of the women’s reservation law. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha on April 16, proposed increasing the strength of the House to 850 seats and sought to expedite the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act passed in 2023.
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The bill, however, failed to secure the constitutionally required two-thirds majority of members present and voting and was not passed during the extended Budget Session.The Congress and other opposition parties have backed women’s reservation but oppose making its implementation dependent on delimitation. They have argued that the reservation provisions should be implemented immediately rather than waiting for the expansion and redrawing of Lok Sabha constituencies.
