Kolkata, Apr 19 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday claimed that it was “deeply unfortunate” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to “mislead” the nation over the women’s quota bill.
She also alleged that the central government was plotting to push through 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 in a post on X.
In an address to the nation on Saturday, a day after a bill to implement 33 per cent women’s reservation in legislatures from 2029 was defeated in the Lok Sabha, Modi warned the Congress and its allies that the women of India will severely punish them for “the sin of foeticide”.
Banerjee said, “The Trinamool Congress has always championed higher 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 per cent women members in the Rajya Sabha.
She said that the question of opposing the women’s reservation does not arise.
“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,” the TMC chief said.
Banerjee said her party opposed “the altering of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution, the division of this nation and the usurpation of power through gerrymandering, by redrawing political contours to hand greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others”.
Claiming that this is an “assault on federal democracy”, the TMC chief said, “We will not watch it happen in silence.” Lashing out at the Prime Minister, she wrote, “The next time you address the nation, have the courage to do so from the Floor of Parliament, where you are subject to scrutiny, challenge and accountability.” “What you did yesterday was cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued. You can feel power slipping through your fingers. And you are prepared to go to any extent to hold on for just a little while longer,” the West Bengal CM said, targeting Modi.
On April 16, the central government introduced three key Bills in the Lok Sabha – The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, The Delimitation Bill, 2026 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
The government stated that the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’, commonly known as the Women Reservation Act, provides that reservation for women will be implemented based on delimitation after the Census conducted post-2026.
“If this government was genuinely serious about this noble cause, why did it wait nearly three years after the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill on September 28, 2023?” she said.
“Why rush it through when several states are in election? And why couple it with Delimitation?” Banerjee questioned, asserting that the Trinamool Congress has stood for women for decades.
The assembly election process is on in five states, including West Bengal.
“We will not be lectured on a subject that the ruling dispensation neither understands nor respects,” Banerjee said. PTI AMR BDC
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