National

We have not given up on 33% reservation: Sushma

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday tried to dispel the impression that it was backtracking on support for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies.

Party leader Sushma Swaraj focussed on women’s quota for the second consecutive day, at the concluding session of the national executive of the BJP Mahila Morcha here.

The BJP views the Election Commission’s proposal of making it mandatory for each party to give at least 33 per cent of ticket to women candidates as the only quick way to get consensus on this contentious issue.

Ms. Swaraj said the issue had been put on the back burner for more than 11 years. The time had come to bring in legislation which could get all-round political approval so that the new law could be in force at the time of the next Lok Sabha election.

She pointed out that the BJP had not given up on a clear 33 per cent reservation for women. If the government were to bring in a Bill similar to the original 1996 proposal, the BJP would support it.

However, she noted its disadvantages — it would need a time-consuming Constitution amendment, rotation of seats between the general category and reserved women’s seats would become necessary and, most of all, the parties would not be able to evolve consensus.

A second proposal of increasing the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and then reserving one-third for women was also found to be impractical.

It was in this context that the BJP was now emphasising the proposal first made by M.S. Gill when he was Chief Election Commissioner that a simple law be enacted to make it compulsory for the parties to give one-third of ticket to women. It was this focus of the party that created the impression that the BJP became lukewarm to the original idea of 33 per cent reservation. But Ms. Swaraj insisted that it would support any of the three proposals if legislation were to be brought before Parliament.

Earlier, BJP president Rajnath Singh asked the delegates to remain firm in their demand.

A proposal he made a few months ago to give one-third of all party positions to women will be approved at the BJP national council session here beginning on January 28.

The entire list of office-bearers and national executive council members, and lists of office-bearers of the various party wings at the central and state levels would be revised after the session, to give women one-third of all positions.

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