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The BJP says Congress is obstructing ladies’s quota, whereas the Opposition says it helps 33% reservation however rejects linking it to delimitation
Chief of Opposition within the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi throughout the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ occasion in Pune. (PTI)
A political struggle over ladies’s reservation has erupted once more, two days after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s interplay with younger ladies in Pune, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accusing him of hypocrisy and the BJP difficult Congress to again the fast implementation of the 33 per cent quota.
Congress and the BJP have since traded competing claims over what ladies’s empowerment ought to imply, from political illustration and reservation to autonomy, patriarchy and the position of faith.
The newest trade started after Gandhi, addressing woman college students at his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Pune on Saturday, urged women to challenge patriarchal social structures and mentioned: “You belong to no one, besides your self.”
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Fadnavis then turned Gandhi’s remarks right into a political problem, questioning his stand on the Girls’s Reservation Invoice. BJP basic secretary Smriti Irani adopted up by asking Gandhi to again the fast implementation of the 33 per cent quota.
The Opposition, nevertheless, says the BJP is merging assist for ladies’s reservation with opposition to a separate delimitation proposal that was linked to its implementation.
The Battle Of Phrases
On the Pune occasion, Gandhi spoke at length about women’s autonomy and the social restrictions he mentioned proceed to restrict ladies.
Invoking the Manusmriti, Gandhi mentioned its prescription that girls ought to stay below the authority of male kin was shameful. “These phrases are a disgrace. These phrases shouldn’t have been spoken,” he mentioned. He then instructed the younger ladies: “You belong to no one, besides your self.”
Gandhi additionally urged the scholars to “break the cage” and known as on ladies to “smash patriarchy”, arguing that being a daughter, spouse or mom shouldn’t be their solely identification.
He described India’s ladies because the nation’s largest asset, referring to “70 crore distinctive journeys, distinctive creativeness, distinctive desires” and arguing that girls ought to rise up for themselves and consider in themselves.
The BJP rapidly seized on the remarks.
Fadnavis accused Gandhi of taking a contradictory place on ladies’s empowerment. He argued that Gandhi was talking about ladies’s rights in Pune whereas, based on the BJP’s place, Congress had opposed the constitutional modification that sought to fast-track implementation of girls’s reservation.
“Coming to Pune to speak about ladies after which opposing the very Invoice that might give them actual energy, that’s Rahul Gandhi’s hypocritical stand,” Fadnavis mentioned.
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He additionally questioned the Congress chief’s wider political messaging, calling the occasion a “directionless occasion of show-offs and loudmouths” and accusing it of counting on speeches and tv appearances fairly than grassroots work.
Fadnavis additionally mentioned the “most revolutionary step in the direction of empowering ladies” was the Girls’s Reservation Invoice introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereas accusing Gandhi and Congress of voting towards it.
BJP basic secretary Smriti Irani then immediately challenged Gandhi to match his rhetoric with assist for the implementation of girls’s quota.
Referring to Gandhi’s feedback on ladies and faith, Irani mentioned: “Since he has invoked faith, I’ve a request to that outstanding chief of the Congress.”
She additionally introduced the continued Vande Mataram controversy into the argument, saying the music’s later verses comprise an invocation of Goddess Durga. “I urge that the total rendition of Vande Mataram, together with the verses invoking Goddess Durga, be carried out on the Congress headquarters,” Irani mentioned.
Irani’s bigger political problem was over the ladies’s quota. She mentioned Gandhi ought to assist the “fast implementation” of the reservation for ladies and again PM Modi’s initiative to implement 33 per cent reservation in legislatures.
Her argument was that the constitutional provision already exists and that Gandhi’s public advocacy for ladies ought to translate into assist for its implementation.
What Has Occurred To Girls’s Reservation Invoice?
Parliament had already handed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023, offering for one-third reservation for ladies within the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Nonetheless, the 2023 legislation made implementation contingent on a census adopted by delimitation.
In April 2026, the Centre introduced a recent constitutional modification—the Structure (131st Modification) Invoice, 2026—together with associated delimitation laws, looking for to fast-track implementation.
The proposal linked the ladies’s quota to a brand new delimitation train and modifications within the measurement of the Lok Sabha.
The 131st Modification Invoice was defeated within the Lok Sabha on April 17 after 298 MPs voted in favour and 230 towards, falling in need of the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional modification.
That distinction is now on the coronary heart of the political battle.
Congress has repeatedly argued that it didn’t oppose ladies’s reservation itself. Its rivalry is that the laws defeated in April was basically about delimitation and the proposed restructuring of constituencies, with ladies’s reservation tied to that course of.
ALSO READ | ‘Dishonest Pitch’: Opposition Reacts As PM Modi Urges Support On Women Reservation Bill
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate mentioned after the April vote: “The ladies’s reservation invoice was not defeated, the delimitation, which you (authorities) needed to thrust on the nation, was defeated.”
Congress additionally factors out that the unique ladies’s reservation laws was handed unanimously in 2023 and is already a part of the Structure.
The occasion’s place has been that the 33 per cent quota ought to be applied on the present power of the Lok Sabha fairly than being linked to a recent delimitation train.
That’s the central rebuttal to the BJP’s cost that Congress is anti-women’s reservation.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has additionally attacked Fadnavis and the BJP over the difficulty. Raut has argued that the BJP is presenting a delimitation train as a ladies’s reservation measure and has questioned why the quota can not merely be applied on the present 543 Lok Sabha seats.
He mentioned: “If reservation for ladies is the true situation, it’s attainable to supply reservation to 180 ladies out of 543 MPs straight away. Even when our personal seats are misplaced within the course of, we’re able to implement it.”
The federal government, in the meantime, framed the proposal as a method to make ladies’s reservation operational sooner. The ladies’s reservation argument has additionally merged with the broader BJP-Congress battle over Gandhi’s Pune outreach programme.
BJP Maharashtra vice-president Keshav Upadhye known as the occasion a “political comedy present”, accusing Gandhi of utilizing a scholar interplay to make political statements fairly than addressing scholar issues. “Whereas looking for Manuwad, the Congress ought to first look within the mirror,” Upadhye mentioned, whereas questioning Congress’s report on points together with ladies’s reservation.
Congress hit again. Congress nationwide secretary Sachin Sawant mentioned the BJP was rattled by the response to Gandhi’s programme and claimed the ruling occasion was anxious about his rising attraction amongst younger folks. He described the response to the Pune occasion as “unprecedented” and mentioned the BJP had been shaken by the turnout.
Concerning the Writer
Apoorva Misra is an Affiliate Editor at News18.com with a eager curiosity in politics and present affairs. She loves uncovering recent angles and telling tales by way of long-form options and explainers…Learn Extra
August 24, 2026, 14:06 IST
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