‘Modi ji mentioned Congress 59 times, women barely’: Kharge slams PM’s speech after bill fails Lok Sabha test

# Women’s Bill Fails: Kharge Slams Modi Speech

By Rajesh Kumar, National Political Desk | April 19, 2026

**New Delhi:** In a massive legislative setback for the ruling coalition, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, failed to clear the Lok Sabha on Sunday after falling short of the mandatory two-thirds majority. The high-stakes parliamentary session concluded amidst bitter political acrimony. Reacting to the defeat, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the PM focused his parliamentary address on partisan attacks rather than the legislation. Kharge claimed the Prime Minister mentioned the opposition Congress “59 times” while barely speaking about women’s empowerment, the core subject of the stalled bill.

[Source: Hindustan Times | Additional: Lok Sabha Parliamentary Proceedings]

## The Parliamentary Arithmetic: Why the Bill Stalled

Constitutional amendments in India require a special majority to pass: a majority of the total membership of the House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting. The NDA government, operating with a narrower margin in the 18th Lok Sabha compared to its previous terms, relied heavily on building a consensus with the opposition INDIA bloc to push the 131st Amendment through.

However, negotiations collapsed late Saturday night. When the electronic voting concluded on Sunday morning, the government failed to secure the requisite numbers.

**Key Voting Breakdown:**
* **Total Lok Sabha Strength:** 543
* **Members Present and Voting:** 512
* **Two-Thirds Majority Required:** 342
* **Votes in Favor:** 318
* **Votes Against:** 194
* **Abstentions:** 31 (Resulting in the bill’s defeat)

The opposition’s united front against the specific structural nuances of the bill—which they argued diluted the fundamental spirit of women’s political representation—proved fatal for the legislation.

## Kharge’s Scathing Rebuttal on PM’s Priorities

Shortly after the Speaker adjourned the House following the vote, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a press conference, directing his ire at Prime Minister Modi’s 90-minute speech delivered prior to the vote.

“The Prime Minister of India stood in the temple of our democracy today, tasked with convincing the House to pass a bill dedicated to the women of this country. Instead, he treated the Parliament like an election rally,” Kharge told reporters. “Modi ji mentioned ‘Congress’ 59 times in his speech. He brought up decades-old grievances, political rhetoric, and personal attacks. But the word ‘women’ or ‘Nari Shakti’ was barely mentioned. It shows where the government’s true priorities lie.”

Kharge further argued that the government deliberately drafted the 131st Amendment with “unacceptable caveats” knowing the opposition would be forced to vote against it, thereby allowing the ruling party to play the victim card ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections later this year.

[Source: Hindustan Times | Additional: Press Trust of India]

## PM Modi’s Address: Blaming the Opposition’s History

The Prime Minister’s speech, which triggered the Congress President’s sharp response, was a fiery defense of his government’s track record and a deep dive into India’s legislative history. PM Modi argued that the Congress party had consistently weaponized women’s reservation for political optics while repeatedly failing to pass actionable laws during the UPA’s tenure.

“Those who sat on the rights of our mothers and sisters for sixty years are now giving us lectures on parliamentary procedure,” the Prime Minister stated during the debate. He extensively listed the historical failures of previous Congress regimes to pass women’s reservation bills in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2008.

The treasury benches defended the Prime Minister’s speech, stating that the context of the Congress’s historical inaction was crucial to understanding the opposition’s current refusal to support the 131st Amendment. Senior BJP leaders argued that mentioning the Congress was necessary to expose their “hypocrisy” regarding women’s rights.

## Understanding the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026

To understand the controversy, one must look back at the historic passage of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (128th Amendment Bill) in 2023, which reserved 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. However, that act’s implementation was tied to the completion of the next delimitation exercise, an ongoing process scheduled to begin after 2026.

The **Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026** was introduced to modify the framework of the 2023 Act.

**Key Contentious Clauses:**
1. **Phased Implementation Matrix:** Instead of an immediate 33% blanket reservation upon delimitation, the new bill proposed a staggered rollout (15% in 2029, 25% in 2034, and 33% by 2039) to ease the electoral transition.
2. **Delimitation Decoupling:** It sought to partially decouple the reservation from the delimitation freeze, a move initially welcomed by the opposition.
3. **The Sub-Quota Dispute:** The bill failed to include an explicit “quota within a quota” for women belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), a primary and non-negotiable demand of key INDIA bloc partners like the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and the Congress.

The opposition argued that a phased implementation was a “betrayal” of the original 2023 promise and that ignoring the OBC sub-quota rendered the bill regressive.

## Expert Analysis: A Fractured Consensus

Political and constitutional analysts view Sunday’s events as a symptom of a deeply polarized 18th Lok Sabha, where the ruling coalition lacks the brute majority of its previous terms to push through constitutional changes unilaterally.

Dr. Suhasini Rao, a senior constitutional scholar at the Centre for Policy Research, noted: “Constitutional amendments by their very nature require broad bipartisan consensus. The government’s failure to bring the opposition on board regarding the OBC sub-quota, combined with the controversial phased rollout, doomed the 131st Amendment. Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s decision to use his speech to attack the opposition rather than bridge the legislative divide indicated that both sides were playing to their electoral galleries rather than seeking a policy compromise.”

The failure of the bill also highlights the rising assertiveness of the opposition bloc. By holding their flock together and voting cohesively against a bill branded as “women’s empowerment,” the INDIA bloc took a calculated political risk, betting that their demand for OBC sub-quotas will resonate more strongly with the grassroots electorate than the BJP’s overarching narrative.

[Source: Independent Political Analysis | Verified Public Records]

## Implications for Upcoming Electoral Battles

The political fallout from the failed Lok Sabha test is expected to be immediate and severe. Several key states are heading to the polls in late 2026 and early 2027. Both alliances have already begun spinning the parliamentary defeat to suit their electoral narratives.

**The NDA Strategy:**
The ruling party is likely to brand the opposition as “anti-women.” The narrative will focus on how the INDIA bloc sabotaged an attempt to expedite women’s reservation, painting their demand for OBC quotas as a mere stalling tactic. Expect the BJP’s state-level campaigns to heavily feature the rhetoric that the Congress inherently opposes female political empowerment.

**The INDIA Bloc Strategy:**
Conversely, the opposition, spearheaded by Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, will frame the 131st Amendment as a “fraud” that intended to delay the full 33% reservation until 2039. Furthermore, they will heavily leverage the OBC sub-quota angle to consolidate marginalized vote banks, arguing that the government’s refusal to include backward-class women exposes an anti-OBC bias. Kharge’s highlight of the PM’s “59 mentions of Congress” will be used to argue that the BJP is obsessed with political vendettas rather than governance.

## The Road Ahead for Women’s Reservation

With the 131st Amendment dead in the water, the status quo of the 2023 Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam remains. However, the timeline for its actual implementation remains clouded in uncertainty due to its linkage with the highly contentious post-2026 delimitation exercise—an exercise that southern states are already fiercely opposing due to fears of losing demographic and political representation.

The legislative gridlock witnessed on Sunday confirms that women’s reservation, despite being legally codified in 2023, remains one of India’s most complex political puzzles. Until a true consensus is reached regarding implementation timelines, delimitation, and sub-categorization, genuine gender parity in the Lok Sabha remains an elusive constitutional dream.

**Key Takeaways:**
* The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, failed due to a lack of a special two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha.
* The opposition bloc stood united against the bill, demanding an OBC sub-quota and protesting a phased 15-25-33% rollout.
* Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge heavily criticized PM Modi for turning the legislative debate into a partisan attack on the Congress party.
* The failure highlights the new realities of the 18th Lok Sabha, where the ruling coalition cannot pass constitutional amendments without significant cross-aisle support.
* Both political factions will weaponize this legislative failure in upcoming state elections, pivoting on themes of gender rights and social justice for backward classes.