BJP wants to take credit for Women’s Reservation Bill: Punjab Congress

Leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to take credit for the Women’s Reservation Bill even though it was the brainchild of the Congress

Chandigarh : Leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to take credit for the Women’s Reservation Bill even though it was the brainchild of the Congress.

Leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to take credit for the Women’s Reservation Bill even though it was the brainchild of the Congress.

Bajwa said it was former PM Rajiv Gandhi who, in May 1989, introduced the Bill to provide one-third reservation for women in rural and urban local bodies. “The Bill could not get passed in the Rajya Sabha in September 1989. Again, the minority government led by PV Narasimha Rao reintroduced the Constitution Amendment Bills 72 and 73, which reserved 33% of all seats and chairperson posts for women in rural and urban local bodies. This time, the bills got cleared by both houses and became the law,” he said in statement.

The Congress leader made the claim after the Narendra Modi-led BJP government on Tuesday introduced the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023, to bring in 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and all legislative assemblies. This will include reserving one-third of the seats kept for SC/STs and one-third of the total seats in the general category.

Bajwa also said the Women’s Reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, was earlier passed by the Manmohan Singh government in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010. He said the Congress welcomes the latest move though the BJP-led Union government seems to have become hungry for credit.