Shah sets a 2029 line for Uniform Civil Code laws in 21 NDA states

Union home minister Amit Shah said in Mumbai on 13 September that Uniform Civil Code statutes will be introduced in all 21 states run by the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance partners before the 2029 Lok Sabha election. He spoke at a briefing with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, tying the pledge to twelve years of NDA government and to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twenty-five years in high office.

"Triple talaq has been abolished, giving Muslim women equal rights. We have introduced UCC in several states and I am confident that in the 21 BJP-NDA-governed states, we will introduce UCC before 2029," Shah told reporters.

A Uniform Civil Code is a single set of personal laws for marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption, replacing separate religious codes. Article 44 of the Constitution lists it as a directive principle. The BJP has carried the demand in successive manifestos. The practical path now runs through state assemblies rather than a single central statute.

Uttarakhand brought a code into force in January 2025, the first state to do so after Independence. Gujarat passed a bill in March 2026. Assam passed one in May 2026. Madhya Pradesh passed its version in July 2026. Several of those texts still need presidential assent or notification before they operate as law. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have set up drafting committees. The NDA now governs 19 states and two Union Territories, a list that includes Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal after the 2026 state results.

Shah also announced Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, a month-long campaign from 17 September to 17 October. It will mark Modi's birthday on 17 September and the completion, on 6 October, of twenty-five years as chief minister and prime minister. The plan is to work every district, Lok Sabha seat, assembly seat and polling booth, with NDA parties and voluntary groups taking part.

On security, Shah listed surgical strikes, air strikes and Operation Sindoor as evidence of a zero-tolerance line on terrorism. He said more than 14 peace agreements had been signed in the Northeast, more than 9,000 people had surrendered, and five decades of Maoist violence had been ended. Asked whether a 1951 baseline would be used for a National Register of Citizens in Manipur, he said the Union government is talking to allies and other parties and will announce a decision later.

He claimed the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita had raised conviction rates by about 30 percent in a single year in several states. Those figures come from the briefing, not from a published all-India conviction table released the same day.

The 2029 deadline converts a long ideological item into a state-by-state legislative calendar. Codes already passed still have to clear Rashtrapati Bhavan. Drafts in Maharashtra and Rajasthan have to survive coalition arithmetic. West Bengal's new government can write a bill that the previous Trinamool administration would not. Opposition parties have argued that a common code will override Muslim, Christian and tribal personal law. Shah did not address those objections in the Mumbai remarks. He presented the project as a completed social reform in waiting, with triple talaq as the precedent and 21 statehouses as the remaining work.

What happens next is countable. Assent letters, gazette notifications, and the first draft bills from Mumbai and Jaipur will show whether the 2029 line is a statute plan or a campaign sentence. The Seva Sankalp tour begins on 17 September. The UCC file will travel with it.

State codes are not carbon copies of one another. Uttarakhand's 2025 text created a live-in registration rule and a common inheritance scheme that immediately drew court petitions. Gujarat and Assam have written their own drafts. Madhya Pradesh's July text still needs the last administrative steps. A 2029 target that treats "introduce" as passage of a bill is easier to hit than a target that treats "introduce" as a notified, working law. Shah used the word introduce. Gazette officers will use the word notify.

The Mumbai briefing mixed three calendars. One is the UCC legislative calendar. One is Seva Sankalp, which starts on Modi's birthday. One is the 2029 national election. The political use of the first calendar is to give the third calendar a social-reform plank that can be counted state by state. Allies who run some of those 21 governments will have to decide whether they want their names on a personal-law statute before they want a joint campaign photograph in October.