Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday accused the Indian National Congress (Congress) of practising 'selective memory' and hypocrisy over the implementation of the 33 per cent women's reservation in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies, escalating a political row that has drawn in senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram. The exchange centres on the operationalisation of the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 — formally titled the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.

The Core Dispute

Fadnavis argued that the 2023 legislation explicitly tied the 33 per cent quota to two sequential prerequisites: a post-commencement population Census followed by a delimitation exercise to redraw constituency boundaries. He said that because the national Census was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting a fresh Census and subsequent delimitation would push implementation beyond the 2029 general elections.

To address this, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government introduced fresh constitutional amendment bills in 2026, seeking to enable delimitation based on existing 2011 Census data and adjust Lok Sabha seat distributions. Fadnavis contended that Congress opposition to these 2026 bills directly obstructed the fast-tracking of women's reservation ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.

What the Chief Minister Said

'The moment the real opportunity for early implementation arose, the true colours of the Congress became evident,' Fadnavis stated, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to ensuring women's reservation is in place before the 2029 parliamentary elections.

He further alleged that Congress voted for the 106th Amendment Act in 2023 with full knowledge that its text contained the post-Census delimitation clause — effectively, he argued, supporting a bill whose own architecture delayed implementation, then criticising the government for that delay.

Chidambaram's Rebuttal

Chidambaram had earlier pushed back sharply against Fadnavis, stating: 'CM Maharashtra, Mr Devendra Fadnavis, is reported to have said Rahul Gandhi makes big statements about women empowerment on stage. But when it comes to passing the Women's Reservation Bill, he and his party staunchly opposed it. I am sure the statement was due to cognitive fatigue. Because the Constitution (106th Amendment) Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies was passed in Parliament in 2023. The Congress wholeheartedly supported the Bill in both Houses of Parliament.'

Congress leaders, including Chidambaram and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, have consistently demanded immediate, unconditional implementation — arguing that tying the quota to future delimitation exercises was a design flaw embedded in the government's own 2023 Bill.

The Broader Context

The women's reservation debate has been a recurring flashpoint in Indian politics for nearly three decades. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam marked the first time the quota cleared Parliament, yet its implementation architecture — Census-then-delimitation — immediately drew criticism from opposition parties who called it a built-in delay mechanism. This is not the first time the BJP and Congress have traded accusations of bad faith on the issue; similar exchanges followed the bill's passage in September 2023.

With the 2029 elections now the stated deadline, the question of whether the NDA's 2026 amendment bills — and their passage — can deliver on that timeline will remain a live political and constitutional test.