NEW DELHI: Accusing BJP of using women’s quota as a cover for delimitation, Congress lead speakers Gaurav Gogoi and K C Venugopal said Modi govt was “bulldozing” the redrawing of the electoral landscape to strengthen itself for the 2029 elections.Congress challenged govt to implement the women’s quota immediately in the current Lok Sabha of 543 seats without the need for census and delimitation, as it opposed the proposal to raise LS strength to 850.Venugopal said, “You are using women’s quota to destroy democracy… Your intention is whatever happens to the nation, we have to win the election.” He said PM Narendra Modi “joked” about the black shirts worn by protesting TN and Kerala MPs because he did not “understand the sentiments of the two states”.Gogoi said BJP was using delimitation like “gerrymandering” in the US, where seats are redrawn for “political exploitation”. He said BJP used “the delimitation commission” and Census 2011 in J&K, while EC was deployed in Assam to use Census 2001 to redesign seats. He said factors like geographical contiguity and uniformity of size were bypassed. “What was done in Assam and J&K, govt wants to do it in the entire country. How shameful and sad. This is how you are misusing women in the name of quota,” he remarked.Gogoi said BJP govt was hyping up the women’s quota as if it was being done for the first time, while Nari Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in 2023 by unanimous support. He said the govt had then deliberately linked quota to Census 2027 and delimitation, ignoring Sonia Gandhi’s demand that it be implemented from 2024 elections.
