Women’s reservation bill: BJD plans to build consensus on Bill, but key concerns remain

However, the party has not taken a final call on earlier demands linked to the Bill.

From 2010 to 2011, the bill had been strongly opposed by the Samajwadi Party and the RJD, which wanted a “quota within quota”. Both parties said they opposed the legislation unless it made provisions for adequate representation of women from Dalit and other backward communities. At the time, BJD had supported the bill as worded.

Eight years on, the party will rethink the issue seriously, according to sources. On this particular issue, BJD’s Lok Sabha MP from Dhenkanal, Tathagata Satpathy, told The Indian Express, “I personally don’t think there is any harm in the overall reservation having further provisions.”

He said, “No sensible person will object if the present balance of percentage (existing reservation for marginal sections), as clarified in the Constitution and in a number of Supreme Court rulings, is abided by in this (women’s reservation bill)… I have not yet sought the party president’s (Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik) opinion.”

Members of the party are also analysing why the CM has picked up this issue now. Requesting anonymity, a party MP told The Indian Express, “In the past couple of election cycles, internal surveys have shown that BJD has garnered support of 55-60 per cent of support from women voters. But the (BJP-led Central government’s) Ujjwala scheme may have created a dent in that goodwill for us among women.”

BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, responsible for the Ujjawala scheme, is expected to be BJP’s CM candidate for Odisha assembly elections next year.

However, BJD spokesperson Chakradhar Das said the party is again trying to push this issue into the national spotlight after “sensing a new enthusiasm among other political parties”. “When the CM brought forward this resolution in the (winter session) state assembly (in November), it was supported by all other parties,” he said.

BJD leaders were however unable to explain why they have been assigned to meet political parties with whom they share no personal rapport. “I don’t know anyone from the parties I have been assigned. I was not consulted,” confessed a BJD leader.

Other BJD leaders also point out that the party’s “principle of equidistance” from all others on a variety of national issues could prove costly. “Naveen Patnaik did not attend H D Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in as Karnataka CM, which was attended by many opposition party leaders. The BJD walked out of Parliament before the crucial no-confidence motion against the NDA in the Monsoon Session of Parliament,” said a party MLA.

However, BJD’s Puri MP Pinaki Mishra dismissed the concerns, saying, “Naveen has been CM for nearly 20 years. He has excellent personal relations with a gamut of political parties”.

The JD(U) on Thursday committed “full support to Naveen Patnaik on this matter”.