‘Hike LS seats to 725 for women’s quota’

Making a forceful plea for enhancing women’s representation in legislation, former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today...

Making a forceful plea for enhancing women’s representation in legislation, former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today called for increasing the Lok Sabha strength to 725 so as to reserve 180 seats, one-third of the present strength, for women.

Vajpayee, addressing a gathering at the BJP headquarters after releasing a Mahila Morcha souvenir this evening, said the Government should review the issue and take a decision before the present

Lok Sabha comes to an end. He implied that the matter be sorted out during the term of the present House so that the next Lok Sabha could be put in place according to a new arrangement.

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The senior BJP leader said some people had told him that the Lok Sabha hall did not have enough space to seat 725 people. While maintaining that there could be no resource constraint, he said: “Can’t we construct new buildings?’’

The Lok Sabha, according to him, could be shifted to the Central Hall and the Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha hall.

Buttressing his point to increase the strength, Vajpayee cited the example of the British House of Commons. The

Commons, he said, had 650 members though its population was too small as compared to India’s.

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Constituencies in India had become unwieldy while the electorate wanted their representatives to work both intensively and extensively. He said the issue had been hanging fire for eight years.

The BJP first tried to build a consensus and subsequently decided to pass a legislation on reservations with a majority.

The empowerment of women through reservations in panchayats was the first step, he said, adding that it was high time the next step was taken.

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