New Delhi, May 5
The Women’s Reservation Bill will be re-introduced by the government tomorrow in the Lok Sabha in its original form, BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra said here today.

Mr Malhotra said the Congress and the CPM had also wanted the Bill to be brought in its original form and had in a letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee expressed support to it.

“The Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the CPM have in a letter said they would support the Bill in its original form,” he said.

He said two more constitution amendments pertaining to empowering states to impose taxes in place of VAT and delimitaton of constituencies are also to be taken up in the current session.

The party has issued a whip for members to be present in the House when these amendments are put to vote.

The government wants the Bill to be passed during the current session of Parliament and there should be no difficulty in its passage,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the leader of the Opposition has taken keen personal interest in getting the Bill enacted and succeeded in convincing her party MPs to support it. After this, she wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, sources said.

Mr Malhotra said since there was no political consensus on the draft provisions of the Bill, it was decided that it should be moved in its original form. There was a lot of dissent to the Bill earlier due to which it could not be passed.

The bill draft, which had the provision for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the state assemblies, could not gather consensus and was put in abeyance.

Mr Malhotra said the Prime Minister was of the view that some provisions from the draft could be dropped if consensus was achieved.

Among the Opposition parties, the Laloo Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janta Dal, the Mulayam Singh Yadav led-Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal(U) had strongly opposed the bill, while the Congress and the Left parties had called for a consensus.