By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) denied Thursday that it was divided over the women’s bill that seeks to reserve a third of all seats in the country’s legislatures for women.
A day after the media quoted one of its MPs, Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, as saying that he would vote against the bill in the Lok Sabha, he reversed his reported stand Thursday.
“When the BJP is in favour of the bill, when I am in the BJP, when the BJP asks me to vote for it, I will vote for the bill,” Yadav told reporters here.
The BJP’s chief whip, Ramesh Bais, who had said Wednesday that there was great resentment against the proposed legislation, added that his MPs would not defy the party’s fiat to pass the bill in the lower house.
“Whatever the individual opinions of MPs, all MPs will go with the party decision if it comes up in the Lok Sabha,” he said.
“They (some MPs) may have personal reservations against it, but they will go by the party decision.”
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar spoke on similar lines.
“Ours is a democratic party. People may have different views. But once the party takes a decision, everyone falls in line.
“So, to say that the party is divided over the women’s bill, is a rumour. We condemn this rumour.”
The women’s reservation bill was passed by an overwhelming majority in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday after two days of uproarious scenes caused by politicians ranged against it.
The Congress, the BJP and the Left parties were the leading backers of the bill in the Rajya Sabha, and they have pledged to see it through in the Lok Sabha as well.