BJP faults Patil’s 33 per cent formula

In a letter to parties, the Home Minister said since opposition to the bill in its current form came mostly from legislators who stood to lose their seats to women, a way out would be to increase the strength of Parliament and state legislatures by 33 per cent and then provide reservation.

The BJP, she said, had three objections to the proposal. First, it was ‘‘impractical’’ because it meant shifting Rajya Sabha to the larger Lok Sabha chamber, Lok Sabha to Central Hall and Central Hall to the new Parliament library. In the states, the ‘‘logistical’’ problem would be greater because they wouldn’t be able to house bigger legislatures.

Further, she said it would be a time-consuming process involving fresh delimitation of constituencies and the process would be delayed for at least two more Lok Sabha terms.Besides, the party said the actual quota for women under the new proposal would come down from 33 per cent to 25 per cent since the overall strength of the legislatures was being increased.

The objections notwithstanding, Swaraj said the BJP would agree to ‘‘any proposal including this one’’ if there was a consensus and a bill was brought in the coming session of Parliament.

Swaraj said the BJP was in favour of women’s reservation, being the first party — way back in June, 1994 — to pass a resolution on the issue. The NDA government had introduced the bill in December 1998 and for ‘‘six years’’ tried to get it passed but failed due to lack of consensus.