Lokesh proposes 33% of TDP seats for women in 2029 elections at Mahanadu

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will give women a 33% quota of its seats in the 2029 elections whether or not the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed, national working president Nara Lokesh said, setting out the proposal at the party’s two-day annual political conclave Mahanadu, which began at the TDP’s central office near Mangalagiri on Wednesday (May 27, 2026).

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Lokesh said women should be given a 33% quota whether or not the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in Parliament, and that the TDP, a party committed to women’s empowerment from its inception, was taking the lead to make it a reality.

“It should not be a slogan but a commitment to India’s future. We need more women legislators, more women leaders, and more women policymakers. This is our resolution, responsibility, and our commitment,” he said.

He said he believed the next era of Indian politics belonged to women’s leadership, and that the NDA had brought the Women’s Reservation Bill but the opposition had blocked it for political reasons.

Mr. Lokesh said women should not remain mere beneficiaries but become decision-makers, and that many parties which made appeals for women’s reservation had confined it to rhetoric. The TDP, he said, believed in women’s empowerment in principle and in practice.