BANGALORE: Even as BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar said the party will extend unconditional support to the Congress-led UPA if it brings forward the Women Reservation Bill, party national spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman called upon the women workers to sound the bugle for 2013 electoral battle at Saturday’s state level conference.
Kumar accused the Congress of not bringing the Bill as it feared that SP, BSP and RJD will withdraw their support. Seetharaman claimed her party was the first to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the organisational set-up from GP level to Parliament. They spoke at the “Naari Shakti Sangama”, a state-level conference of BJP women workers organised by the party’s women’s wing Mahila Morcha at Bangalore Palace Grounds. The conference was attended by about 15,000 party workers from 224 assembly constituencies.
Seetharaman complimented chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda for presenting ‘gender budget’ where `38,000 crore of ` 1 lakh crore was earmarked for the empowerment of women in all the departments. “I am sure that women who have assembled here will be responsible for BJP’s return to power in the 2013 elections,” she said. Kumar added that soon governments will have to reserve 50 per cent of budget and seats for women. Gowda added that state government’s scheme ‘Bhagyalakshmi’ benefited 12.4 lakh families. “Mothers and sisters are the best carriers of the achievements of the government as they have their own methodology to subtly spread the message,” he said.