Rahul dials Abhishek to thank him for floor coordination, Akhilesh speaks to Mamata

Kolkata: Hitting the pause button on the acrimony of an election season where their parties are pitted against one another in Bengal, LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool's leader in the LS Abhishek Banerjee spoke on a telephonic call on Friday evening. While Gandhi dialled Abhishek to thank him for the "floor coordination" that saw Trinamool fly 21 MPs to Delhi to vote against the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, spoke to CM Mamata Banerjee.

Later in the day, Abhishek wrote on X: "The fallout from the defeat of the Delimitation Bill in the Lok Sabha is exposing the BJP's discomfort for all to see. The Women's Reservation Act guaranteeing 33% reservation for women has been in force since 16 April 2026. It was passed unanimously in Sept 2023. If the NDA govt is serious, it should immediately bring forward the bill to notify one third of the seats. DO IT NOW! TMC has not just supported this in principle but exceeded it in reality, with over 41% women's representation in Parliament."


He added: "The Constitutional 131st Amendment Bill 2026 has been rejected by INDIA. The attempt to expand the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and push delimitation based on the 2011 Census raised serious concerns about fairness and balance. The NDA govt is clearly on borrowed time and the illusion of control is beginning to crumble in plain sight."

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge reached out to Trinamool leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien, thanking him for the coordination which resulted in a govt-moved bill faltering in Parliament for the first time in 25 years. Trinamool participated in every meeting on the issue, with CM Banerjee and Abhishek personally speaking with netas of other parties — often as late as 2 am over the past three days — to ensure a unified response from all non-BJP parties.

The CM had earlier established the party line, making it clear that Trinamool would oppose the "delimitation bill", which she said had "been presented by BJP as women's reservation bill". "As many as 21 party MPs were asked to join the special Parliament session, including veteran MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Saugata Roy. The only MPs who could not attend had scheduled election rallies," a TMC neta said.Get real-time updates and result insights on the CBSE 12 Result 2026.