Summary: The Mahila Congress has launched a nationwide campaign demanding implementation of the 2023 Women’s Reservation Bill, countering BJP’s “anti-women” claims. Through protests and outreach, it aims to pressure the government. While electoral impact may be limited, the campaign helps mobilise workers and strengthen the party’s position on women’s representation.
The Congress party’s Mahila wing has launched a nationwide campaign demanding the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in 2023, which was passed with Congress’ support. The campaign is framed as a counter to the BJP’s narrative that the opposition parties are anti-women, calling it the BJP’s “misleading narrative” on women’s representation.
The Mahila Congress wants to highligh that the government’s recent attempt to pass the law during the special parliamentary session was less about empowering women and more about paving the way for delimitation. With the 2026 effort to implement the bill failing to clear Parliament, the BJP has accused opposition parties of resisting greater representation for women and its women parliamentarians have also come out with placards after the bill failed to pass the parliament test and echoed the party stand.
In response, the Mahila Congress has rolled out a nationwide signature and postcard campaign, alongside protests and press conferences, aimed at building pressure for immediate implementation of the 2023 women reservation bill while directly challenging the BJP’s claims.
“Our press conferences have begun. We have already held protests in Delhi and launched postcard and signature campaigns. This will be an ongoing effort until the bill is implemented-it is going to be a long struggle against the BJP,” said Safia Zuber, General Secretary of the All India Mahila Congress.
The campaign will be coordinated with other frontal organisations, with state units expected to replicate similar mobilisation efforts across the country.
The timing, however, raises political questions. The exercise comes after assembly elections in Kerala and Assam, where the Congress is a principal opposition force, and ahead of polls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. In Bengal, the party’s limited organisational presence reduces the potential electoral impact, while in Tamil Nadu it remains a junior partner to the DMK, which largely drives the political narrative.
Analysts suggest the campaign may have limited immediate electoral payoff. “The major contests for the Congress in Assam and Kerala are already over. In West Bengal, its positioning has minimal electoral consequences, and in Tamil Nadu, it will largely play a supporting role to the DMK,” a political observer noted.
Yet, beyond electoral arithmetic, the campaign has given the women’s wing of the party an opportunity to mobilise its cadre, make amends in its organisational functioning, and build a women’s base, apart from trying to counter the BJP’s narrative on the bill. For the Mahila Congress, it offers a platform to energise its cadre and expand its outreach.
Some observers believe the sustained mobilisation could blunt the BJP’s attempt to frame the opposition as anti-women, while equipping Congress workers with political ammunition to contest that claim in public discourse.
