The Congress and BJP sparred on Saturday over the women’s quota and delimitation bills after Rahul Gandhi said that no country can be successful if its women do not express themselves, prompting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to call it a “visible change of heart” and express the hope that the opposition party will support the proposed legislation.

Rahul Gandhi has been holding a series of AMA sessions with social media users.

The controversy began when he produced a separate video addressing the subjugation of women in India, based on an earlier question from an AMA session, and shared it via the Congress Party’s X account.

In response, Parliamentary Minister Kiren Rijiju commented that this appeared to be a positive message from the Congress Party, noting what he described as a visible change of heart in Rahul Gandhi regarding women. He added that he now hopes the Congress Party will offer unconditional support to the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Replying to Rijiju’s remarks on X, Gandhi countered, stating, “Mr Rijiju, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, you are well aware that the Women’s Reservation Bill 2023 has already been unanimously approved, with the complete backing of the Congress.”

Gandhi, in a post on X, questioned why it has still not been implemented after three years and why it is now being unnecessarily tied to delimitation.

“Implement the 2023 law. Without any conditions”, he added.

Rijiju's lengthy reply to Gandhi’s remark emphasised the government's limitation to implement Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam).

Rijju post stated that the Congress leader is fully aware that the reservation of seats for women in the House of the People and in State Legislative Assemblies is established under the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023.

He stated that Gandhi is also aware it will only take effect after a delimitation exercise is carried out using census data released after 2023, meaning census figures made available after 2026.

“The exercise for publishing the census figures after the year 2026 is currently underway. However, this may take substantial time due to the caste-based census to be finally published.

In view of this, it may result in considerable delay in the implementation of women reservation, at least not before the 2034 General Elections,” the senior BJP leader said.

Therefore, to implement the women reservation at the next general elections in 2029, the delimitation exercise needs to be undertaken at the earliest, based on the latest available Census figures, as published, he added.

Rijiju said the implementation methodology has been proposed under the Delimitation Bill 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha along with the amendments to the Constitution.

However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was introduced for this purpose, has been defeated, the minister said.

“Also, a reminder to Rahul Gandhi, there’s no woman in Karnataka DK Shivakumar’s Cabinet! This raises serious questions over Congress’s stand on 33% Women quota,” Rijiju said in another post on X.

Reacting to the criticism, Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said, “We are the ones who piloted (women’s reservation bill), we are the ones who passed (the bill).” “The Congress party believes in it (giving priority to women).

You know how many seats we gave (to women) in Parliament, I think you remember. So, in Karnataka, definitely we are sorting out that issue. Rijiju may not worry about the Congress Party,” the chief minister said.