Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday made a strong pitch for 33% reservation for women in politics. He was speaking at a day-long workshop organised by the Congress’s women wing.
“You (government) will have to give the women reservation. The Congress party will not leave you with any choice,” Mr. Gandhi said.
The Congress has been pushing for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which has been languishing in the Lok Sabha.
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The bill envisages 33% reservation for women in Parliament and all the Legislative Assemblies.
Mr. Gandhi’s mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, reminding him that the bill had already been passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power.
He also emphasised that since the Congress was no longer led by a women, it will have to make it up by increasing women in its ranks. “We have to work on transforming the Congress party and a fundamental part of that transformation, in my mind, is going to be the role of women in the Congress party at every single level. There is a central difference between the people we fight, between the BJP and us,” he said.
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