Mumbai:
Is Sharad Pawar’s NCP aligned with the Center over the controversial delimitation bill, which was rejected in Parliament in April after the government failed to secure a two-thirds majority?
Party MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule on Wednesday hinted that the NCP (SP) may support the bill if the government makes a significant amendment to increase the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in states by 50 per cent.
“Give us the 50 percent condition on paper, then we’ll discuss it,” Sule said at a press conference.
Sule also said that she attended the all-party meeting called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to discuss the bill, which was also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
She said the government has a proposal to include a 50% limit in the bill.
“We still don’t have the bill. I can’t talk on it until we have it,” she said.
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“We will study the bill when it appears and give our verdict. The Women’s Reservation Bill was passed unanimously. Kiren Rijiju called me, Arvind Sawant (UBT Sena) and Asaduddin Owaisi. Amit Shah was also there. They told us that they also spoke to the SP, Congress and DMK. They have an offer.”
Sule said if delimitation was based only on population, it could lead to injustice to the southern states.
“The proposal for 50 per cent formula for each state was put forward by Amit Shah and Kiren Rijiju,” she added.
Sule’s clarification comes amid growing speculation that the NCP (SP) is likely to join the NDA and support the delimitation bill in Parliament.
Ruling out the possibility of a move to the NDA, Sule said her party was firmly committed to the INDIAN alliance.
“There are several rumors about us. All information is based on sources. Our party has been slandered. There is no question of us leaving somewhere. We are in an alliance with INDIA,” Sule insists.
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The clarification on the delimitation bill came on a day when senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the BJP is seeking support from the NCP(SP) and DMK for the 131st Constitution Amendment Bill, which the government intends to introduce in the monsoon session of Parliament. He called on the two regional parties not to support the bill.
“After the TMC split, the BJP is reportedly trying to woo the NCP(SP) and DMK to get crucial votes to support a new version of the failed bill,” he wrote on X.
The BJP is planning to bring back the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, which failed in the last session of Parliament in April 2026.
The failed bill sought to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures for women, but its real purpose was to pave the way for…
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) July 14, 2026
Since the last session, the ruling NDA has increased its strength following a split in the Trinamool Congress and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena party. But the ruling alliance still lacks the two-thirds majority required to pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives.
The deterioration of DMK’s ties with the INDIAN alliance following the Congress’ merger with TVK in Tamil Nadu has also boosted the Centre’s hopes of getting issue-specific support from the southern party.
Sources told NDTV that while the government is keen to table the delimitation bill in the monsoon session starting next week, it will do so only after it is confident of two-thirds support.