While the Bharatiya Janata Party supported the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form, it could favourably consider the Election Commission proposal making it mandatory for political parties to give one-third of all election ticket to women. The second option would then make the issue of sub-quotas irrelevant as parties would be free to choose backward or other caste candidates or Muslim women, leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj told reporters.
The BJP is of the view that the EC option, favoured also by the Shiv Sena, would be able to get the required consensus.
The catch, however, is, the Left parties are opposed to leaving this matter to political parties as they believe the EC formula will not increase women's representation.
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Basudev Acharia (CPI-M) and Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) favour the Bill in its present form and want the government to have it passed in the coming session without any further delay. Mr. Acharia said the Constitution did not permit the creation of sub-quotas for the backward castes, but if the government were to find a way to accommodate this view, the Left would look into it.
Mulayam's twist
Through all this, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh added another twist, demanding 50 per cent reservation for women in all engineering and medical colleges and saying political reservation with a sub-quota for the backwards and Muslims should follow this.
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Leaders at the all-party meeting on Monday agreed that overall the prospect of the Lok Sabha passing the Bill, as already adopted by the Rajya Sabha, looked bleak. If the sub-quota demands are met, the BJP will not support the Bill, and if the political parties are left to nominate women candidates, the Left will not agree. The Congress itself cannot back out of the Bill as presented to the Rajya Sabha and adopted by it.