‘Bill was not about women. They wanted to divide nation’: Mamata targets BJP

A day after the central government failed to push a Constitution amendment bill to expand the size of the Lok Sabha and fast-track 33% reservation for women, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday sharpened her attack on the Narendra Modi government, declaring that the defeat signalled the beginning of the downfall of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leadership.

“That was not the women’s reservation bill. They had just created a narrative. In the guise of women’s reservation bill, they wanted to increase the seats in the Lok Sabha from 543 to 850. They wanted to divide the nation and Bengal,” she told an election rally in Howrah’s Uluberia area.

“Despite assembly elections at our doorsteps, I had sent 21 MPs. We defeated the BJP yesterday. Modi’s downfall has started. In the future, we would oust the BJP. If you target Bengal, we would target Delhi. After our victory in Bengal, we would grab Delhi,” Banerjee added.

The 131st Constitution amendment bill – which sought to raise the Lok Sabha ceiling to 850 and implement 33% reservation for women in time for the 2029 polls – was defeated by a united Opposition that didn’t waiver to incorporate a 50% proportional rise for all states into the bill.

BJP leader Yogi Adityanath addressing a rally in Cooch Behar district earlier in the day, said, “Yesterday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed the bill for the reservation of women, the Congress, the TMC and the Left didn’t allow it to pass. These people don’t want to give half of the population their rights. They protect the infiltrators from Bangladesh. They have insulted half of the Nation’s population. The women of the country shall not tolerate this. ‘Ma Mati Manush’ (Mother, soil and people) was the TMC’s slogan. The entire country witnessed how they behaved with the mother in the Parliament yesterday.”

BJP legislator and Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal legislative assembly Suvendu Adhikari also slammed the TMC over the women’s reservation bill during his election rally at Nandigram in East Midnapore on Saturday.

“The TMC along with the Muslim League opposed the women’s reservation bill and voted against the women of the country. On April 23 and April 29, not a single woman should vote for the TMC,” said Adhikari while addressing the rally.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X, “The NDA government is clearly on borrowed time and the illusion of control is beginning to crumble in plain sight.”

“The fallout from the defeat of the Delimitation Bill in the Lok Sabha is exposing the BJP’s discomfort for all to see. The Constitutional 131st Amendment Bill 2026 has been rejected by INDIA. The attempt to expand the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and push delimitation based on the 2011 Census raised serious concerns about fairness and balance,” he added.

Assembly elections in the state are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29.