By Rajeev Khanna, IANS
Bhopal : Taking a swipe at the Left for not coming up with a woman chief minister in the states ruled by it so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday announced it would be raising women’s representation at its various organisational levels to 33 percent.
Drawing comparisons with the Left parties, senior party leader Sushma Swaraj said: “Till the last one year, their Politburo did not have any woman member.
They have had governments in three states but are yet to choose a woman chief minister.”
The party accepted a report by a six-member committee for increasing women’s representation in its bodies on the second day of its national executive underway here.
Swaraj, who headed the committee, disclosed that till now women’s representation in the various bodies of the BJP was between 12 to 15 percent, which would now be increased to 33 percent.
Swaraj said that the recommendations made in the report would be ratified and the party’s constitution amended accordingly at the next meeting of the party’s national council.
The committee had been constituted following directions from BJP President Rajnath Singh during the party’s last national executive meeting held in Delhi in June this year.
Swaraj claimed her party had always favoured giving proper representation to women at all levels. She said: “Amongst all the governments in India from 1947 onwards, the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) cabinet led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had maximum representation of women. There were 11 of them of which nine were from the BJP.”
She also rued that under the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-led government at the centre, there had been no progress on the proposed Women’s Reservation Bill. “The government has failed to even prepare a draft bill,” she said.
Swaraj said that former BJP president L.K. Advani had termed the report submitted by her committee as “most practical”. She said: “This day is a historic one for the women members of the BJP.”
It suggested that since elections to most of the local and state bodies of the party had already been held, there was no need to remove the men elected. Instead, the number of women in these bodies needed to be increased.
Swaraj said that in future a member of the party’s Mahila Morcha will be an ex-officio member of the state election committee of the party.
The committee wants the suggestions made by it to be applied within three months.