NEW DELHI: Days ahead of the parliament's winter session starting from Dec 11, Rahul Gandhi revived the women's reservation bill which aims at securing 33 percent seats for females in assemblies and the Lok Sabha.
The party had been raising the issue in the past as the bill is stuck in the Lok Sabha where the BJP has a brute majority. The legislation was passed in the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010 when the previous UPA was in power. However, it could not be passed in the Lok Sabha as political parties were divided over the issue.
Rahul, who regularly talks about opening the party for more women, has now written to Congress and alliance chief ministers to pass resolutions supporting the bill in the respective assemblies and asking the centre to pass the law. He cited the case of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandra Babu Naidu, who have taken the lead over the issue.
Sources said the move would help Rahul hit two birds with one stone. First, it would send the right message to half the country's electorate with 2019 national elections less than six months away, and second it would help the party counter the Modi government over an issue which does not find favour with many within the ruling party.
Before Rahul, former party chief Sonia Gandhi had made a similar pitch in the past. After taking over the reins of the Congress in Dec 2017, Rahul had asked the party's women's wing to launch a drive to approach chief ministers urging them to push the envelope with the PM.
In his letter to Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh dated Dec 6, Rahul pointed out that India ranked 148th out of 193 countries globally on the percentage of women in their legislatures.
Further, the Congress chief said that in 1989 former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi tried to push quota for women in the local bodies but the move was thwarted in the Rajya Sabha and the party could succeed in getting it parliamentary approval in 1993 through the 73rd and the 74th constitution amendments.
The party also urged the centre to pass a law to protect the interests of the domestic workers as Rahul has been highlighting their cause of late.