Chandigarh: The Punjab Congress on Monday claimed that if the opposition would have not voted against the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the delimitation exercise that would have followed would have decreased Punjab’s share in Lok Sabha seats by 0.3%, while the figure would have increasedby 1.7% for Uttar Pradesh. Addressing a joint press conference at the Congress Bhawan here, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, AICC general secretary Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and AICC secretary Kuljeet Singh Nagra said the Centre had tried to bring in delimitation in the guise of women’s reservation. They accused the BJP govt at the Centre of sabotaging women’s reservation bill and trying to blame the opposition for it. They said the women’s reservation bill was unanimously passed in Parliament in 2023.They said the Congress did not need a certificate from BJP on providing equal rights and reservations to women. They pointed out that it was in 1989, when Rajiv Gandhi introduced 33% reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies, with the result that about 40% of members in local bodies across the country are women.Giving details, they said while the proportionate share of states like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan will increase by 1.7%, 1.2% and 1%, respectively, that of states like Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal will decrease by 0.3, 1, 1 and 0.2%.
