Thursday, August 25 2005 16:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a setback to government's move on Women's Reservation Bill, main opposition NDA yesterday (Aug 24, 2005) made an about turn saying it would not support it in its current form because of lack of consensus.

The BJP-led coalition, during a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suggested implementation of an Election Commission proposal of earmarking 33 per cent tickets for women to contest polls failing which their recognition will be withdrawn. "There is no consensus on the Bill in its current form as some parties are proposing several things, including quotas within quotas," BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here after the meeting in which Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Law Minister H R Bhardwaj were also present.

He said that NDA was opposed to having quotas within quotas and favoured the easiest way of providing 33 per cent reservation to women. "There is near consensus on EC's proposal of making it mandatory for political parties to give 33 per cent tickets to women," he added. However, in this case, there was no need to amend the Constitution and only the Representation of People's Act could be modified for the purpose. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who led the NDA delegation, said enactment of the law in this regard has been delayed and steps should be taken to expedite it.

Patil said consensus on the format of the Bill was yet to be evolved although BJP and Left had supported its introduction. At the meeting, JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar sought favoured quota within quota to which Akali Dal and TDP said they were not averse to. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said the Prime Minister was inclined to implement EC's proposal as this could be done immediately.

The Law Minister said that there would be no problem on this.The Home Minister, however, did not support it. Swaraj said the Bill in the present form was unacceptable to NDA because it talks about implementation only after 2009. Maintaining the EC proposal could ensure representation to even more than 33 per cent women, she said this could be implemented in next year's Assembly elections in Kerala, West Bengal and Assam to test its efficacy. If it is not useful, it can be amended, Swaraj said.

At a seminar on "UN Renewal and Empowerment of Women" here, Patil said "Congress, BJP and Communists do make up more than two-thirds of the House and that is the umber required to pass the Bill. This is what we apparently see now." He, however, sounded cautious saying "we are keeping our fingers crossed". "I don't know if it will be passed. It cannot be done by any one party," Patil said.