Even as the Yogi Adityanath government has upped the ante on women’s empowerment and a day-long special session of the state legislature will be held on April 30, the opposition is working on its strategic options to counter the BJP’s further push on the issue ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.
Apparently wary of the political objectives behind convening the special session, the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition, has convened a meeting of its legislature party to finalise its agenda on the issue.
“Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has convened a meeting of the legislature party here at 11am on April 29 to give a final shape to our strategy on the issue,” said Mata Prasad Pandey, the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Congress Legislature Party Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ said her party will take a call on the issue by April 29.
“We will speak to the Samajwadi Party leadership too for better coordination on the issue,” she said.
“We are not sure if the state government proposes to move any resolution on the issue,” said a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party.
The BJP aims to target the Opposition for not allowing the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026 to pass in the Lok Sabha. The amendment was brought with the objective of fast-tracking women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies and expanding the Lok Sabha’s strength. The opposition will work out a strategy to counter the government and ruling party’s views on the issue.
“The happenings in Lok Sabha that led to the fall of the amendment bill cannot be discussed in the state assembly or the upper house and so they have proposed discussions on the women’s empowerment issue,” said an Opposition MLA. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who led the Jan Akrosh Mahila Padyatra last week, has already set the tone and tenor for the debate by calling the SP and the Congress anti-women. He addressed a convention on women empowerment in Gorakhpur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address ‘Jan Aakrosh Mahila Sammelan’ in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, on Tuesday.
A meeting of the state assembly’s business advisory committee has been convened on April 29, said speaker Satish Mahana. He said he will soon take a call on convening the all-party meeting.
Meanwhile, the state government has proposed a tentative agenda for the House. It proposes to hold ‘uninterrupted debate on women empowerment’ and also table six ordinances that have been promulgated after the end of the budget session of the state legislature. These six ordinances include Uttar Pradesh Lok Seva
(Adhikaran) (amendment) Ordinance 2026 and Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code (amendment) Ordinance 2026. Those aware of the development said the state government would table the ordinances only to meet the constitutional requirements. The bills to replace the ordinances would be moved only in the next session of the legislature.
