West Bengal chief minsiter Mamata Banerjee on Sunday slammed PM Narendra Modi, stating that it was “deeply unfortunate” that he had chosen to “mislead the nation” over the women’s reservation Bill.
In a post on X, the West Bengal Chief Minister also alleged that the Centre was attempting to push forward the delimitation exercise by “using women as a shield”.
“It is deeply unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to mislead the nation rather than address it honestly,” Banerjee said.
Her remarks came a day after the Prime Minister, in an address to the nation following the defeat of a Bill proposing 33% reservation for women in legislatures from 2029 in the Lok Sabha, accused the Congress and its allies of committing a “sin of foeticide” and warned that women voters would punish them.
Banerjee asserted that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has consistently supported greater political representation for women.
“We have the highest proportion of female elected representatives in both Parliament and the state legislature. In the Lok Sabha, 37.9 per cent of TMC's elected members are women,” she said, adding that the party has nominated 46% women members in the Rajya Sabha.
She emphasised that there was no question of opposing women’s reservation.
“What we are fundamentally opposed to is the delimitation exercise that the Modi government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda,” Banerjee alleged.