Former Union minister and Congress veteran P Chidambaram on Monday hit out at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for what the former described as the latter ‘mocking’ women and their aspirations, when talking about Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's recent announcement of reserving 40 per cent tickets for women candidates for next year's assembly elections in the northern state.
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“UP CM Mr. Adityanath did not mock @priyankagandhi's announcement that 40% of Congress candidates in the UP elections will be women. He mocked women and their aspirations. It is in the DNA of the BJP to assert the superiority of men over women,” Chidambaram posted on Twitter.
The former finance and home minister then dared the central government to move the stalled Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament. “The truth will be revealed if the Modi government moves the Bill in Parliament to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assembly for women. Will Mr. Adityanath publicly declare his party's support for the passage of the Bill?” he questioned.
Introduced in September 1996 by the HD Deve Gowda government, the Women's Reservation Bill aims to reserve 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha, and all state legislative assemblies, for women. However, even after 25 years, it is yet to be passed by Parliament.
{{/usCountry}}Introduced in September 1996 by the HD Deve Gowda government, the Women's Reservation Bill aims to reserve 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha, and all state legislative assemblies, for women. However, even after 25 years, it is yet to be passed by Parliament.
{{/usCountry}}Chidambaram was possibly responding to comments made by Adityanath during an interview to a news channel on Sunday. When asked about Priyanka Gandhi's announcement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had said, “Why does the Congress not appoint a female party president? The position of their national president has been lying vacant. She should appoint MLA Aradhana Misra as Congress president.”
The grand old party is currently headed by Sonia Gandhi, who took over on an interim basis in July 2019 after then party chief Rahul Gandhi stood down in the wake of its second successive general elections defeat at the hands of the BJP, in May that year.
Aradhna Misra has been a member of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) since 2000. She is a sitting legislator from the Rampur Khas assembly constituency of the state.