Saturday, August 6 2005 13:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a bid to break the deadlock on the issue of reservation of seats for women in Parliament and Legislatures, the government yesterday (Aug 5, 2005) came out with a new proposal for an increase of number of seats by one-third of the present strength to accommodate women.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil yesterday held consultations with various parties on the issue when he suggested that the increase in the strength of Lok Sabha and Assemblies could be a method by which the nearly-decade long stalemate could be broken.

Defence Minister and Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad were also present in the discussions held with the leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) and CPI.

The parties were also told that there has been a phenomenal increase in the population resulting in several constituencies becoming unwieldy with voters strength going up to 20 to 25 lakh in some and there was need to right size them. Also there was need to raise the number of seats in accordance with population growth.

Sources said the parties told the government side that they needed time to think over the new proposal but made it clear that they were keen on reservation of seats for them even in its present form. Its president and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani led the BJP team.

The CPI team included Gurudas Dasgupta and S Sudhakar Reddy (both MPs) and D Raja, national council member.

The CPI delegation told the ministers that while issues like rightsizing constituencies and raising the number of constituencies would require de freezing the present bar on raising the strength of the Houses, the party was keen that as of now the one-third reservation for women in Lok Sabha and Assemblies should be carried through.