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New Delhi: For the first time in 12 years, the Narendra Modi government on Friday (April 17) failed to get a constitutional amendment Bill passed. In a major setback to it, a united opposition defeated the constitutional amendment Bill that sought to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 seats to “operationalise” women’s reservation.

While Union home minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha criticised the opposition and said that the “women of the country will not forgive” them, opposition members hailed its victory in defeating the constitutional amendment brought under the guise of women empowerment.

During the voting on Friday, the second day of the special session, 298 votes were polled in favour and 230 against the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which thus failed to receive support from a two-thirds majority of members present and voting that it required to clear the Lok Sabha. A total of 528 MPs were present, of which the government needed 352, and fell short by 54 votes.

The Modi government had on Thursday brought the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 along with the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 as a three-Bill package to “operationalise” women’s reservation.

The Women’s Reservation Act, 2023 had been passed in September that year unanimously in parliament. However, that legislation tied 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures to the next census and delimitation.

The Wire has reported that the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, along with its accompanying delimitation Bill, sought to bring in large-scale changes that would not just increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 but result in a fundamentally altered parliamentary arithmetic and change Union-state relations.

On Friday, facing a tough floor test where the government lacked the numbers to get the constitutional amendment Bill passed, Amit Shah opened his reply to the discussion by blaming the opposition for not supporting women’s reservation.

“They are not opposing its implementation but........

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