BY SANJEEB KUMAR SAHOO
Before sharing my thoughts on recent news articles written by Sonia Gandhi and Narendra Modi, as well as the special session of Parliament on April 16, 17, and 18 to pass the 131st Amendment Bill (2026), which would increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to 850–815 in states and 35 in Union Territories, I would like to mention that day before yesterday, on April 14, I asked Raksha Khadse, a BJP leader from Maharashtra and Union Minister in the third term of Narendra Modi’s government, why the government decided to hold a special session of Parliament on April 16, 17, and 18 instead of after May 4, at the BJP national headquarters in New Delhi during a live press conference. However, I did not receive the answers I was looking for.
And, to be honest, I was and continue to be very impressed with Raver’s third-timer Lok Sabha MP, Raksha Khadse, because of the way she handled the question with confidence, which is a sign of a big leader. I mean, despite being elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014, 2019, and 2024 polls, she became minister for the first time in Narendra Modi’s third term, and she handled the question like a very senior Union Minister, answering it intelligently like a perfect politician and senior minister.
And Raksha Khadse’s response to my question was better than any other senior minister who has served in the Narendra Modi government since 2014.
Let’s get right to the point: in order to pass the 131st Amendment Bill (2026), which would increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to 850–815 in states and 35 in Union Territories, Narendra Modi’s government is holding a special session of Parliament for three days starting today and continuing until Saturday.
Interestingly, the Narendra Modi government is holding a three-day special session of Parliament while the Election Commission of India, led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, is conducting assembly polls for 294 seats, which will be held in a single phase on April 23 in Tamil Nadu, and polling for 234 seats, which will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29 in West Bengal.
However, it makes sense that a special session of Parliament held in the middle of the polls would violate the MCC; however, under ECI rules, a special session of Parliament in the middle of polling may not be violating the MCC as the Election Commission of India is currently led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Because people are already debating whether the special sessions of Parliament on April 16, 17, and 19 violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) rule or not in the middle of the polls. If any politicians use the outcomes of the April 16, 17, and 19 special sessions to influence votes for their party’s candidates at their upcoming rallies in West Bengal’s election, it will raise a number of questions. However, there would be no questions if special sessions of parliament had been held after May 4, i.e., after the counting of state polls.
And I used the term “Model Code of Conduct” in my write-up because the Election Commission of India was silent during the 2025 Bihar Assembly election period. When the dates of the Bihar Assembly poll were announced, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) went into effect immediately, and poll dates were revealed on October 6, 2025, at 4:30 PM. The MCC went into effect immediately, but after a few days, Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sent Rs 10000 to over 76 lakh respected women during the election, particularly during Model Code of Conduct (MCC) implementations. And, just like in 2025, the Election Commission of India remains silent.
Additionally, the strategy for the 2025 assembly polls was designed to embed the Rs 10000 in the minds of voters and ensure that the scheme remained a prominent topic of discussion among the electorate.
On the other hand, newspaper articles are an ineffective means of communicating with opposition parties and their members when they can hold all-party meetings with all important opposition party members. For example, the Narendra Modi government holds all-party meetings with all important opposition party members the day before the budget, monsoon, and winter session. Why has the NDA-led Narendra Modi government not held all-party meetings with all-important opposition party members prior to special sessions of Parliament?
Additionally, I have used “Newspaper articles” because Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote an article for the newspaper on 6 April and Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader Sonia Gandhi wrote an article for the newspaper on 13 April. However, the maths is very basic, and both articles failed to address the issue, which is why I believe Elephnat was in the room and is still there.
I firmly believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should hold a press conference to explain the 131st Amendment Bill (2026) and also should have held an all-party meeting with all political party members because his government is going to make history by expanding the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and enabling immediate delimitation. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a shortcut by communicating with the opposition through newspaper articles and Twitter in order to gain support for the bill in both houses of parliament.
People should be aware that a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority of members present in the Lok Sabha to vote under Article 368. If all 543 members are present, the government requires 362-364 votes to pass the legislation. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government currently has 293-294 seats, falling short of the required 364 seats. The opposition-led INDIA bloc, consisting of approximately 185 MPs, has indicated that it will oppose the 131st Amendment Bill (2026) in Lok Sabha.
Interestingly, the Bill will be debated in the Rajya Sabha only after it has passed the Lok Sabha, where the numbers are relatively favourable to the ruling NDA. With a full House of 244 members, a two-thirds majority would require 163 votes in favour, assuming all members are present and voting.
The NDA’s current total stands at 141 in Rajya Sabha. However, if opposition members abstain or are absent during voting, the effective threshold may fall, reducing the total number of members present and voting, and thus the number required for a two-thirds majority under Article 368.
However, I am disappointed with top Congress leader Sonia Gandhi because she did not mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in her piece; in her most recent piece, she only mentions the Modi government once.
All India Radio (AIR), India’s national public radio broadcaster and a division of Prasar Bharati, said on April 5 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Budget session of Parliament has been extended for three days so that the law enacted in 2023 to provide 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be implemented beginning in 2029.
Because I am not a BJP or Congress beat reporter, but rather a representative of approximately 150 crore respected people in India through the National Political Mirror (the world’s only political magazine and India’s sole independent media house), I write about everyone in the national interest. As a result, I would only suggest that the NDA-led Narendra Modi government should have held an all-party meeting with all political parties prior to announcing a specific sector that will begin tomorrow and end on April 18.
Additionally, the 128th Amendment Bill (2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill) provides a one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies following the delimitation, while the 131st Amendment Bill (2026) proposes to expand the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and enable immediate delimitation.
On September 20, 2023, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, also called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. On September 21, 2023, the Rajya Sabha passed it unanimously, and on September 28, 2023, the President gave his assent.
The Narendra Modi government has proposed a significant overhaul of the composition of the House of the People with the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which seeks to increase the Lok Sabha’s strength from 543 to 850 members.
The Bill will be taken up in the Special Session of the Parliament to be convened on April 16, 17 and 18. The Bill also proposes an amendment to Article 82 of the Constitution, which presently governs the process of readjustment of parliamentary constituencies following each Census.
According to the Constitution’s third proviso to Article 82, the Constitution currently mandates that the next delimitation exercise shall be undertaken on the basis of the first Census conducted after the year 2026. The proposed amendment seeks to delete this proviso in its entirety, thereby removing the constitutional requirement that delimitation must automatically follow the post-2026 Census. This would mean that the delimitation can be carried out based on the data before the 2026-27 Census.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, aims to amend Article 81 of the Constitution that pertains to the composition of the Lok Sabha. The amendment proposes to increase the total strength of the Lower House to 850, up from the current limit of 550. As of now, Article 81 (2) and (3) freeze the Lok Sabha seats as per the 1971 Census and the Assembly seats as per the 2001 Census, “until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published”. In a normal course, this would have meant the 2031 Census. However, since then, the 2021 Census has been delayed and has yet to be completed.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, also amends the marginal heading of Article 82 from “Readjustment after each Census” to “Readjustment of constituencies”, and removes the requirement of readjusting the number of Lok Sabha seats in states after every Census. Similarly, it makes amendments to the Articles on state Assemblies and reservation for SCs and STs, changing the basis from the 2001 Census to “such Census” that Parliament decides by law to use.
And I would like to conclude by saying that the 131st Amendment Bill (2026) should include OBC reservation, with the formula OBC+SC+ST=Reservation.
And trust me, as an editor and founder of National Political Mirror,I am a strong supporter of the women’s bill, and believe me, only National Political Mirror (the #world’s only political magazine) has done a story about all women elected as mayors, MLCs, MLAs, and MPs in 2023, which you can see on the cover page of this tweet.
