A sharp political confrontation erupted in the Tripura Legislative Assembly on April 30 as senior Congress leader and MLA Sudip Roy Barman launched a scathing attack on the central government’s implementation of the Women’s Reservation law. During a one-day special session, Roy Barman alleged that the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is being utilized as a strategic political tool rather than a sincere effort toward gender empowerment.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which would set aside 33 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women, was the main topic of the debate. Roy Barman, a former minister, said he was very disappointed that the Congress Party was “sidelined.” He said that the Congress Party was the one who first suggested the 33 percent reservation move. He challenged the treasury benches by saying that well-known BJP leaders had always been against the bill in its earlier forms. During the heated debate, he said, “I can prove on the floor of the House that BJP leaders once protested and opposed this very legislation.” The debate centered on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. Roy Barman, a former minister, expressed deep disappointment over what he termed the “sidelining” of the Congress Party, which he claimed originally initiated the 33 percent reservation move. He challenged the treasury benches, asserting that high-profile BJP leaders had historically opposed the bill during its earlier iterations. “I can prove on the floor of the House that BJP leaders once protested and opposed this very legislation,” he stated during the heated debate.
The Congress MLA’s main point of disagreement was the timeline for the law. Roy Barman said that even though Parliament passed the bill in September 2023, the official notice didn’t come out until April 16, 2026. He said that this almost three-year delay shows a lack of sincerity and that the move was timed to gain political advantages. He also said that the government was “hiding behind women” to push a bigger delimitation agenda for political gain.
Roy Barman also brought up important issues with the constitution and the region. He asked how the government planned to move forward with the delimitation exercise, which is necessary for the reservation to work, without getting rid of or fixing the problems with Articles 81 and 82 of the Constitution. These articles set the rules for how to divide and change parliamentary seats based on population.
The MLA said that if delimitation is done without enough protections, smaller Northeastern states like Tripura could lose proportional representation. He said that Tripura’s number of seats didn’t go up after the 2011 Census, which made people worry that the next census might leave out smaller states. The session ended with heated debates, as the opposition keeps asking for more information about the implementation roadmap and how delimitation might affect regional federalism.
