Hyderabad, Apr 21 (PTI) Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday alleged that the Congress and its INDIA bloc allies opposed the Constitutional Amendment bill to facilitate women’s reservation as they are all “family parties” and do not want to provide opportunities to ordinary women.
The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought the bill, but the Congress and its allies stalled it, he said.
“For Congress, women empowerment means Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. If Dimple Yadav wins as MP, Samajwadi Party feels all women have won. If Stalin’s sister Kanimozhi prospers, that is the prosperity of all women for the DMK. If Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is elected to parliament, it means empowerment of all women for that party. All these are family parties,” he told reporters in Karimnagar.
These parties opposed the women’s quota bill as they did not want women, except from their families, to emerge as leaders, he alleged.
The Congress opposed women’s reservation not just now, but even during the Vajpayee era, he said.
On the delimitation of constituencies, he said the total number of Lok Sabha seats was made 543 when population was 52 crore, but the country’s population today is 140 crore. “Should there be an increase or not,” he asked.
The Modi government sought to have uniform criteria across the country for increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats, but the Congress opposed it, he said.
Southern states would lose if population is taken as the criteria, he said.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin dashed the hopes of aspiring leaders who dreamt of contesting Lok Sabha and assembly elections, he alleged.
Describing Reddy and BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao as ‘Rahu’ and ‘Ketu’ of Telangana, he said Reddy had alleged Rs one lakh crore “scam” in the Kaleshwaram project built during the BRS regime when he was in opposition. But, the Congress government is now seeking a CBI probe into a “scam of only Rs 9,000 crore.” The CM should make it clear whether an investigation should be conducted into allegations over Rs one lakh crore or Rs 9,000 crore, Kumar said.
CM Reddy is seeking credit for stalling the women’s quota in parliament, Kumar alleged.
He claimed that Reddy is feeling big and wants to “take the place of Rahul Gandhi as the latter does not know anything.” PTI SJR SJR KH
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