Kharge says he will set out SIR and delimitation concerns to Modi on Wednesday

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday he would lay out his objections to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, delimitation and the women’s reservation plan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, as his party kept up pressure for an all-party meeting before any fresh delimitation bill.

“I will explain everything to him tomorrow, including the harm caused by the SIR,” Kharge told reporters in Kalaburagi, his home district in Karnataka. He said he had written to the Prime Minister himself and that Modi “has two letters from me”. He did not say whether he would meet Modi in person, and declined to go further on the day. “I don’t want to talk about politics today,” he said.

Rijiju’s reply

Kharge’s remarks came a day after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju answered his 16 October letter, which had asked for an all-party meeting before Parliament takes up a proposed constitutional amendment on delimitation.

Rijiju wrote that the government had sought the Congress’s cooperation in letters in March and April and in discussions with Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. The Congress, he said, never offered dates, so the government went ahead and consulted other parties, among them the DMK, the Samajwadi Party, the YSRCP, the NCP, the Shiv Sena (UBT), the AIMIM and the BJD. He also rejected the charge of procedural impropriety over Parliament not being prorogued since the Monsoon Session was adjourned sine die on 13 August, saying the Constitution sets no fixed period for prorogation, and urged the Congress not to obstruct legislation.

Ramesh’s questions

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh replied on Tuesday afternoon. He said Rijiju had cited “selective consultations on delimitation with some political parties in March 2026” but left out “commitments in those consultations that were NOT contained in the Constitution Amendment Bill”.

“The Bill was deservedly and decisively defeated in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 2026,” Ramesh wrote, adding that most of the parties Rijiju said were consulted had voted against it. He said Kharge had now asked for an all-party meeting six times in writing, four times to the Prime Minister and twice to Rijiju.

“Does the Modi Govt have a firm NEW proposal for delimitation that it has discussed with any party?” Ramesh asked. “Why is the Modi Govt stubbornly refusing to call an All-Party meeting on Delimitation?” He also asked whether the government meant to bring the Bill back to pass it “with a super-tainted two-thirds majority, that will no doubt fail again”.

Why it matters

Delimitation, the redrawing of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats after a census, decides how political weight is shared between the north and the south, and the government needs a two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution for it. The fight over seats now runs alongside the opposition’s campaign against the SIR, which farmers’ and trade union groups plan to take to district headquarters across the country on Friday, 23 October.

The government has not said when it plans to bring a new delimitation bill, or whether the Prime Minister will meet Kharge.