New Delhi, August 24
In a move to resolve the impasse over the Women’s Reservation Bill, the BJP-led NDA Opposition today proposed to the government that political parties should earmark 33 per cent of the tickets for women.
With consensus eluding the Bill seeking to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the main opposition BJP said it favoured the Election Commission formula of distributing 33 per cent of the tickets to women.
At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and convened to evolve a consensus on the vexed issue, opposition political parties by and large accepted the EC formula, senior BJP leader V.K. Malhotra told newspersons.
He said if their suggestion was accepted by all parties, there would be no need to amend the Constitution and the Representation of Peoples Act could be modified for the purpose.
To a question, Prof Malhotra said even the JD(U), which was a strong votary for quota within quota for SC, ST and OBC women, agreed to BJP’s suggestion.
JD(U) represented by party chief George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, however, said if the Bill was introduced in its original form, it would demand sub-quota for women belonging to these categories, Prof Malhotra said.
Asked whether the BJP, which was all through supporting the original Bill, accepted the EC formula, Shiv Sena leader Anant Geete, who attended the meeting, said BJP leader Sushma Swaraj was of the view that at least 20 to 25 per cent of the women candidates would get elected. At present there are hardly eight per cent
women representatives in the Lok Sabha.Mr Arun Sarma (AGP) said there was a consensus on the EC formula of political parties mandatorily providing 33 per cent tickets to women.
He said most of the opposition political parties were opposed to the increase in the total number of seats in Parliament to accommodate women.
The meeting was attended by NDA Chairperson and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP President L.K. Advani and senior party leader Jaswant Singh.
Besides, the Prime Minister, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad attended the meeting.
