We are prepared for 2-D Bills — Delimitation and Dismissal: Jairam Ramesh

Ahead of the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Congress exuded confidence that the united Opposition would once again be able to stall the Delimitation Bill if the government were to bring it back, as well as the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks the automatic dismissal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days.

Also read | Delimitation: Perspectives and viewpoints

Calling the former “dangerous” and the latter “diabolical”, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, speaking to The Hindu, asserted that the government does not have the numbers, despite the split in the Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT).

“We are prepared for 2-D Bills — Delimitation and Dismissal,” Mr. Ramesh said, referring to the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill as the “dismissal Bill”.

On April 17, the united Opposition defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, which sought to redistribute Lok Sabha seats on the basis of the 2011 Census to expedite the implementation of women’s reservation.

“If you go by what happened that day, there were 528 members in the Lok Sabha who voted on the Bill. To pass the Bill, the government needed a two-thirds majority, which put the number at 352. As opposed to 352, the government got 298. Now they claim they have 324, which means they are still significantly short,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He further alleged that the government could arrange for abstentions to bring down the majority mark. “I am not putting it past them, but even if they arrange for abstentions, they are still substantially short of the required number,” Mr. Ramesh added.

Calling the recent split in the Trinamool and Shiv Sena (UBT) a serious setback for the Opposition, Mr. Ramesh said that all Opposition parties continued to be in touch. On April 17, all nine MPs of Shiv Sena (UBT) and 22 of the 28 Trinamool MPs had voted against the Bill.

“I don’t underestimate the challenges that we face. It’s going to be a tightrope walk, but I am confident that we will be able to stop both the Bills,” Mr. Ramesh said.

On the question of whether the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s distance from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) could aid the government in passing the Bills, considering the recent tensions between the Dravidian party and the Congress, Mr. Ramesh said, “Nothing has happened to convince me that the DMK has suddenly softened towards the BJP. I believe they continue to oppose the BJP; after all, the BJP is the negation of everything the DMK has stood for.”

He further pointed out that despite the DMK’s absence from the June 8 INDIA bloc meeting, it had joined the Aam Aadmi Party, which also did not attend the meeting, in signing the joint Opposition memorandum to the Chief Justice of India on the Special Intensive Revision and electoral issues.

He also appealed to MPs who broke away from the Trinamool to join the National Citizens Party of India to be conscious of the incongruity of their position, having voted against the Bill in April.

“It is not only incongruous but also immoral for them to shift their position now,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He claimed that the split in the Trinamool and Shiv Sena (UBT) was engineered by Home Minister Amit Shah. “The Home Minister was humiliated on April 17 by the Opposition. What you are seeing today is his revenge for that humiliation,” Mr. Ramesh added.

The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, is currently under review by a Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by BJP leader Aparajita Sarangi. It is expected to submit its report before the beginning of the Monsoon Session, which begins on July 20.

“I don’t think people have understood the real travesty of the dismissal Bill [Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill]. Any Chief Minister or Minister who is arrested and is unable to obtain bail for various reasons can be automatically dismissed on the 31st day. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister can use the investigative agencies in any way to destabilise any State government using this Bill,” Mr. Ramesh elaborated.

He further said the Congress was not opposed to “delimitation in the abstract as a principle” but was concerned about how it would be executed. “It should not be rushed through,” Mr. Ramesh said.

He pointed out that the Delimitation Commission appointed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government took six years to carry out the exercise, while the Narendra Modi government wanted to finish it in “12 to 15 months”. “Delimitation should not be done in the way it was done in Jammu and Kashmir or Assam. In both places, it was gerrymandering, not delimitation,” he said.