By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress admitted Monday that some political parties continued to have reservations over the legislation favouring 33 percent quota for women in parliament and assemblies.
“It cannot be denied that people do have reservations on the issue. Once we have resolved these differences and reached a consensus, the government can present the women’s reservation bill,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters.
The bill has been tabled in parliament several times but has been scuttled by political parties opposed to the idea. The main critics are the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Samajwadi Party.
When he was told that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties were open to the idea of such a bill, Tiwari said: “We are in a coalition. We have to carry our coalition partners along.”
Sharad Yadav of the JD-U told reporters Monday: “We want a quota within the quota in the women’s reservation bill to include those women who belong to Other Backward Class (OBC).”
The bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha for the first time Sep 12, 1996 by the H.D. Deve Gowda government. Since then it has been tabled several times but has not been passed.