Shah sets 2029 mark for Uniform Civil Code in all 21 NDA states

Union home minister Amit Shah said on Sunday that the Uniform Civil Code will be introduced in all 21 states governed by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking in Mumbai with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde beside him, Shah tied the pledge to the abolition of triple talaq and to codes already passed in a handful of states.

Uttarakhand remains the only state where a UCC is in force. It took effect in January 2025 and covers marriage, divorce, inheritance, succession and live-in relationships. Gujarat passed a bill in March 2026. Assam passed one in May, keeping Scheduled Tribes outside the law. Madhya Pradesh passed its bill in July. Those three statutes are waiting for presidential assent and notification. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have drafting committees. West Bengal, which is not an NDA government, has also formed a committee, a fact that sits awkwardly beside Shah's 21-state frame.

A deadline with allies attached

Twenty-one is a political number. It includes states where the BJP governs with partners who have not always wanted a common personal law. In Bihar, JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak said the state will not implement the code, a direct reply to Shah's Mumbai line. That objection will be tested inside the NDA, not only on opposition platforms.

A Uniform Civil Code replaces religion-based personal laws on family matters with one statute for all citizens. Article 44 of the Constitution lists it as a directive principle. The BJP has carried the demand in its manifesto for decades. Doing it state by state, rather than through a single parliamentary Act, is the method chosen after 2024. State bills can be tailored, and they can stall in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Shah was in Mumbai to launch talk of Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, a month-long NDA campaign from 17 September to 17 October that marks Narendra Modi's 25 years in top office, from the Gujarat chief ministership through the premiership. The UCC line was delivered in that setting, as an achievement to come rather than as a draft tabled in the Lok Sabha.

What the existing codes actually do

Uttarakhand's law is the template others have copied. It sets a minimum marriage age, requires registration, restricts polygamy, and brings live-in relationships onto an official register. Tribal communities have been carved out in Assam and, in practice, treated carefully in the hill state that went first. Inheritance rules that differ across Hindu, Muslim and Christian personal law are the part that will generate court challenges once more states notify.

Opponents say a common code is a majoritarian project aimed at Muslim personal law. Supporters say it is a women's rights project that began with the triple talaq statute. Both arguments will be reused in every Vidhan Sabha that takes a bill. Shah's 2029 date compresses that fight into the current Lok Sabha term and the next state election cycle.

Asked in the same briefing about a 1951 baseline for a National Register of Citizens in Manipur, Shah said the Union government was talking to allies and other parties and would announce a decision later. He also said more than 14 peace agreements had been signed in the Northeast and that more than 9,000 people had surrendered in the campaign against Maoism.

The test after the quote

The measurable test is not the sentence in Mumbai. It is presidential assent for Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh, and then notification dates. Until those three laws operate, the UCC map of India is one state. Shah has now put a public clock on the other twenty. Allies who do not want the clock will have to say so in their own capitals, as the JD(U) voice in Bihar already has.