The government on Wednesday revisited the pending agenda of women’s reservation and delimitation with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju engaging the Congress on the issue to assess its position.Although sections in the ruling dispensation indicated a possible convening of a special session to take up the women’s quota Bill, Rijiju denied any such plans. He said the current monsoon session would not be extended and there was no plan for a special session either. The current session is to end on August 13.Rijiju, however, admitted that he met Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to assess the Congress’ position on key pending Bills, including the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act amendments and the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill-2026 that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies in time for the 2029 General Election.Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present at this meeting which KC Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi also joined.Rahul is said to have declined the agenda reiterating the stated Congress position that the reservation for women should happen on the existing strength of 543-member Lok Sabha. The government Bill defeated earlier had proposed to raise the LS strength to 850 and also enhance the current LS strength of each state by 50 per cent.Piloting the Bill in April, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said it did not disadvantage any southern state as believed.A united Opposition had defeated the Bill in the previous special session convened on April 17. The Bill had fallen short of the two-thirds majority of MPs present and voting (a requirement to pass a constitutional amendment agenda) and fell by 278 votes in favour to 211 against. There were 489 MPs present and voting.Even as of today, the government is short of a two-third majority in both Houses to take up the delimitation Bill and is engaged with opposition parties, including the DMK, on the matter. While it may manage the numbers in Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha remains a challenge.Although the NDA’s Lok Sabha numbers have risen after the recent merger of 20 TMC MPs with Nationalist Citizens Party of India and of six Shiv Sena-UBT MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Sena, the ruling side is still short of the numbers needed to pass the delimitation and women’s quota agenda.In such a scenario, the BJP would either have to muster support or bank on abstentions by some opposing parties to reduce effective strength of the House and hence also the two-thirds majority mark.But NDA sources said that some level of consensus would need to be forged before the government reintroduced a new Bill as it could not afford a second legislative defeat.All eyes are now on the DMK’s 22 Lok Sabha and eight Rajya Sabha MPs who have said they would take a call on the Bill after its new draft was made public.The current LS strength is 540 due to three vacancies. If everyone votes, the two-thirds mark is 360. The NDA today has 319 MPs (including 20 TMC rebels and six Shiv Sena MPs). The YSRCP has four MPs who had supported the Bill in April. That takes the NDA tally to 323.The DMK’s 22 MPs could be key in Lok Sabha and if they backed the Bill, the NDA’s numbers would surge to 345, just 15 short of a two-thirds majority if all 540 MPs were present and voting.If some opposition segments abstain, this gap can be bridged but that goal is still far. The Rajya Sabha has 244 MPs with 164 being the two-thirds mark. The NDA has 154 members here and can expect the YSRCP’s support of four MPs. That would mean it would need six more or manage abstentions.