Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that it wants to delay the caste-based census because if this census is conducted, the Center will have to release caste-based data and implement caste-based reservation for backward communities.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Yadav stressed that the Samajwadi Party welcomes the Women’s Reservation Bill, under which one-third of the seats in Parliament will be reserved for women, but he questioned the “motives” of the government rushing into its implementation.
He said the BJP was “turning women into slogans.”
Akhilesh followed, “The Samajwadi Party is in favor of the Women’s Reservation Bill. We have always worked for the upliftment of women. But the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to make a woman a slogan. The BJP will have to answer that out of the 21 states in which they have governments, how many states have women Chief Ministers? Even your Delhi Chief Minister does not have the rights of a Chief Minister, she is ‘half Chief Minister’. I want to know why there is such a hurry?”
He said that BJP wants to delay the caste based census. He accused the BJP of playing games by using women and pointed to the ulterior motive behind implementing the bill.
He emphasized that the BJP wants to avoid caste-based census so that the caste-based data is not made public, which would force them to give caste-based reservations to backward communities.
He said, “The truth is that BJP wants to delay the caste-based census. BJP’s election fraud has been completely exposed. When we exposed deletion of voters’ names in Form 7 and SIR scams, BJP introduced these bills. This time BJP is playing games by using women, but it will not succeed.”
He further said, “There is an ulterior motive behind the haste the BJP is showing in the name of this amendment. The BJP wants to avoid conducting the census. The reason for this is that if the census is conducted, they will be forced to release caste-based data and as a result, will have to implement caste-based reservation for backward communities. This is a big conspiracy hatched by the BJP.”
In fact, this morning, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 were introduced in the Lok Sabha after the Opposition pressed for division of the three bills instead of a voice vote.
According to the final division, out of total 333 votes, 251 votes were cast in favor and 185 votes were cast against.
The Lok Sabha mainly uses voice voting, but if it is challenged, ‘division’ is carried out, using automatic vote recorders (yes, no, absent).
The government has called a special session of Parliament on April 16, 17 and 18 to pass amendments to the Nari Shakti Vandan Act.
In this, the support of the opposition has been sought so that the amendment bill can be passed to implement the Women’s Reservation Bill from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections on the basis of 2011 census.