Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, accused the Congress party of walking out of the Assam Legislative Assembly during a vote on support for Women's Reservation, charging that the opposition's decades-long record on women's political representation stands 'exposed yet again.'

Context

In a post on X, CM Sarma stated: 'When the House stood to support Women's Reservation, the Congress chose to walk out instead of standing with Bharat's Nari Shakti.' The remark was directed at Congress legislators in the Assam Assembly, whom he accused of abandoning the chamber at a moment of symbolic consensus on women's political empowerment.

The Chief Minister drew a direct line from the present incident back to 1996, when the Women's Reservation Bill was first introduced in Parliament, arguing that Congress's 'anti-women mindset' has remained unchanged across three decades of Indian politics.

Policy Backdrop

The Women's Reservation Bill was first tabled in the Lok Sabha in September 1996 and lapsed repeatedly over subsequent sessions. The Rajya Sabha passed a version of the bill in March 2010 under the UPA government, but it was never taken up in the Lok Sabha, effectively stalling the legislation for over a decade.

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was finally enacted by Parliament in September 2023 after fresh introduction by the NDA government, providing 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. BJP-ruled states, including Assam, have since passed or supported resolutions endorsing the central law, using such occasions to contrast their position with Congress's legislative history on the issue.

Stakeholders and Impact

The immediate stakeholders are women political aspirants across Assam and the broader northeast, for whom implementation of the 33 per cent quota in state assemblies carries direct electoral consequence. The walkout, as characterised by CM Sarma, provides the ruling BJP a fresh political data point ahead of any forthcoming state electoral cycle.

Opposition parties, including Congress, have historically argued that procedural and substantive objections — including the demand for simultaneous Other Backward Classes sub-quotas — drove their positions on the bill, a counter-narrative CM Sarma's post does not engage with. The broader pattern of BJP-ruled assemblies adopting pro-reservation resolutions and spotlighting Congress's record is consistent with the party's national gender-welfare messaging.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to whether the Assam Assembly passes a formal resolution in support of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam and whether other North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA)-governed states follow with parallel motions. Congress is expected to respond to CM Sarma's charge, potentially offering its account of the walkout and its reasons. The episode is likely to shape political messaging around women's representation in the run-up to the next round of northeastern state elections.