Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday has urged all political parties to support the 33% reservation for women, emphasising it as the call of the hour.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, is intended to implement one-third women’s reservation in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assembly. In April’s Parliament session, the bill fell short of two-third majority of 352, out of the total 528 members present in the Lok Sabha.
The bill proposes one-third reservation or 272 seats for women by increasing the size of the Lok Sabha to 815 seats and rolling out the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of 2011 Census data.
During the monsoon session, which ended on August 13, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members had reached out to key opposition parties including the Congress to help pass the bill.
“Reservation for women is the call of the hour, I appeal to all parties to support and take credit for it,” Modi said from the ramparts of Red Fort on Independence Day.
To be sure, Parliament had passed the women reservation bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023, which proposed to roll out women reservation from 2034 on the basis of the ongoing census data, but the government wants to pass a new bill to implement reservation in 2029.
{{/usCountry}}To be sure, Parliament had passed the women reservation bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in 2023, which proposed to roll out women reservation from 2034 on the basis of the ongoing census data, but the government wants to pass a new bill to implement reservation in 2029.
{{/usCountry}}Responding to the PM’s appeal, Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said, “Shri @narendramodi is again cunningly “appealing” to the opposition for 33% women’s reservation in Parliament. Dear Mr Modi, the law has been passed, please bring women’s reservation TODAY, NOW, implement 1/3 reservation for women in the 543 member House NOW, IMMEDIATELY. Why aren’t you doing it? Because what you actually want is NOT representation for women, but Delimitation to massively bolster seats in north India so you can INCREASE your seat tally. You are USING women’s reservation for an out and out political agenda. The public knows your game Mr @narendramodi . You can’t fool people anymore.”
Congress’ Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh reiterated that his party is firmly in support of women reservation and wants an immediate implementation of one-third seats from the current 543 Lok Sabha seats.