Delink women's quota from seat addition, implement it as is: UBT Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi

Washington DC [US], April 23 : Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Thursday said the 2023 Women's Reservation Act should be delinked from the proposal to add more seats to the Lok Sabha and implemented as it is, stressing that even 180 women in Parliament would be "a good start".

Speaking at the New India Conference at the Hudson Institute, Chaturvedi noted that women constitute 50 per cent of India's voters and population but have barely managed to reach 13 to 14 per cent representation in the legislature.

"I just want to side with the women of the country. 50 per cent of India's voters and population is that of women, but in terms of representation, we have barely managed to reach up to 13 per cent, 14 per cent, which is an unfortunate reality," she said.

She said the fight for women's representation has been going on for three decades and that this is not how India's founding fathers envisioned the country would have to struggle for representation.

"What played out last week was something very unfortunate. We had passed a bill in 2023 which sought 33 per cent reservation for women. This is a fight which has been going on for the past three decades for representation. This is not how our founding fathers saw that India would want to fight for representation," Chaturvedi said.

She said the proposal to add seats was a controversial topic that could not be decided over the course of three days.

Expressing hope that Prime Minister Modi would follow through on his personal commitment to ensure women's representation, Chaturvedi urged that the 2023 bill be delinked from the seat addition proposal.

"Prime Minister Modi, when he addressed the people of the country, said he has made it his personal goal to ensure that there is going to be representation. So I'm hoping that the 2023 bill would be delinked from the idea of adding more seats and would be applicable as it is. That would also open the doors for maybe not 280 women in Parliament at least 180 would be a good start. So that is where I stand," she said.

On April 17, Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha voted against the Constitution Amendment Bill.

The BJP-led government failed to secure the required two-thirds majority to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill. In the Lok Sabha voting, 298 members supported the bill while 230 opposed it.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla confirmed that the bill did not pass. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Centre would not proceed with the remaining interrelated legislations.

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