Gayaji, Apr 20 (PTI) Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday claimed that the opposition’s stance on women’s reservation has angered female voters, “making the job easy” for the BJP, which hopes to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, a junior NDA partner in Bihar, made the remark while interacting with journalists in his parliamentary constituency Gaya.
“There is a lot of anger among women over the opposition’s refusal to back the proposed amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill. Women are angry in Bihar and elsewhere. I think that the opposition has ended up making the job easy for the NDA (of which BJP is the largest constituent) in West Bengal”, said the 80-year-old leader.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which had sought to link women’s reservation to delimitation of constituencies, fell in the Lok Sabha last week when it failed to get support of a two-third of total number of members.
Under the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to up to 816 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. Seats were also to be increased in state and UT assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
Non-NDA parties, many of which had helped the women’s reservation bill get passed by an overwhelming majority in 2023, flinched at the new bill, alleging that the BJP was using women as a shield to get the delimitation bill passed.
However, Manjhi said, “The delimitation of constituencies, which would increase the strength of the Lok Sabha, is a necessity. There are many constituencies with up to 40-45 lakh voters. How can the MP concerned ever do justice to his responsibilities as an elected representative when he is answerable to so many people?” PTI NAC NN NN
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