Overview
- Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday accused Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP of actively splitting opposition parties to raise the ruling bloc’s Lok Sabha strength and pursue a two‑thirds majority for constitutional change.
- The charge follows the April 17 defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, when the government won 298 votes but fell short of the 352 needed for a two‑thirds majority in the 528 who voted.
- Recent reported shifts include six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs moving to the Eknath Shinde faction, about 20 TMC MPs aligning with the NDA grouping, and several AAP members moving to the BJP, which Congress says raise the ruling camp’s numbers.
- The BJP has denied any plan to remove reservation protections, while Congress demands that women’s quota be implemented on the current 543‑seat Lok Sabha for 2029 and that any delimitation wait until after a caste census.
- The dispute centers on parliamentary arithmetic, trust in institutions such as the Election Commission and the sequencing of reforms, and it could directly affect protected groups if the government ever secures the votes needed to amend reservation clauses so keep watching further defections and any new delimitation bills.