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Two months ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government had failed to pass a contentious delimitation Bill – which it had linked to women’s reservation – largely due to a united opposition vote against it. In a dramatic turn of events, the parliament is staring at the prospect of an unprecedented defection-powered realignment that could help pass the once-defeated Bill.

Defections in the Trinamool Congress, speculation on some MPs of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) camp jumping ship, the exit of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from the INDIA bloc following the Congress ending its alliance with the party, and seven AAP MPs moving to the BJP, have come one after the other as the saffron party is looking to cobble support to reintroduce the same Bill. 

The bill which sought to expand the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 seats, under the cover of “operationalising” women’s reservation, had been defeated in the Lok Sabha in April. The defeat was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first failure to get a constitutional amendment passed in the Lok Sabha.

Why is parliament realigning?

The implosion of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) following its defeat in the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections has not only fractured the fourth largest party in the Lok Sabha, and the second richest by electoral bond donations received, it has also resulted in 20 of its 28 MPs expressing the desire to form a separate faction that has announced its merger with the little known Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI). This new unit has said that it will support the NDA government. 

However, Mamata Banerjee’s is not the only party that is likely to alter the numbers in parliament. 

Amid speculation of an imminent rift in the Shiv Sena (UBT), the party has........

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