DELHI: The Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 will be presented in the Lok Sabha today. Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju is scheduled to introduce the bill for discussion in the House at 12 noon, following the Question Hour.
Speaker Om Birla has allocated eight hours for the debate on the bill. Of this, the ruling NDA has been granted four hours and forty minutes, while the remaining time has been allotted to the opposition.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) have declared their support for the bill. Both parties have issued whips directing all their MPs to be present in the House during the proceedings.
Meanwhile, the opposition is united in its opposition to the bill. Neutral parties such as Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK, Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and K. Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have also aligned with the opposition on this issue. The I.N.D.I.A bloc parties held a meeting at the Parliament complex on Tuesday to finalise their strategy regarding the bill.
The opposition has demanded that the duration of the debate be extended from eight to twelve hours. In response, Kiren Rijiju stated that the discussion time could be increased, noting that the nation also deserves to know where each party stands on the matter.
