NEW DELHI: BJP is likely to pitch-fork the contentious women’s reservation Bill in Parliament in the coming months. With Punjab and Odisha adding to the women reservation chorus, the BJP national executive meeting next month is likely to deliberate on the contentious issue even while the “quota within quota” debate remains unsettled, with not much serious efforts made in the recent years to evolve a political consensus.
“The BJP national executive meeting in January may deliberate the issue of women’s reservation in Parliament. BJP chief Amit Shah is favourably disposed to the idea of pushing the contentious legislation, a senior BJP functionary said.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi's move to ask the party-ruled states to pitch for women’s reservation with the Centre is being taken note of within the BJP, sources said, who added that the saffron outfit would need to take ownership of the issue sooner before the Opposition outfit builds a narrative around it in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A section of BJP leaders noted that the BJP could seize the contentious legislation to test the fragile bond among the constituents of the grand alliance built around the Congress. “The quota within quota debate clouding the issue of women reservation in Parliament had been spearheaded by the likes of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The BJP is in favour of a consensus among all the stakeholders. Since the Congress president, who had earlier written a letter in support of the legislation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is espousing the cause, it could be seen how much he’s heard among his friends in the SP and RJD,” another senior BJP functionary said.
The BJP would also be keen for Congress support for the Triple Talaq Bill to ensure that there’s gender equity in the approach of the opposition outfit, the BJP functionary added.
However, a top BJP leader noted that there’s not much Parliament window left to take up the contentious women’s reservation Bill. “There's no seriousness on the part of any political party to address the demand for fair and equitable representation of women in Parliament. The demand for quota within quota was made to kill the Bill,” he said.
Women’s reservation has met with fair success at the panchayat-level due to the mandatory 33 per cent quota, which had further been upped by a number of states, but there have been no takers yet for similar measures in state legislatures and the Parliament.