Mandal brigade tones down opposition

If past attempts to push the women's reservation bill in Parliament had witnessed very aggressive opposition from the 'Mandal brigade', the response of these parties were comparatively tame on Wednesday as they extended support to the bill even while reiterating their demand for OBC sub-quota.

SP MP Dimple Yadav said: "Samajwadi Party has been demanding that women belonging to backward class and minority communities should also be given reservation. I want to ask whether this reservation be applicable in the Rajya Sabha and legislative councils in addition to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas." Yet, she and her party colleagues neither staged a protest over the lack of OBC sub-quota nor threatened to vote against the bill. She, however, questioned the delay in implementing the legislation and asked when delimitation and census will take place.

JDU MP Lalan Singh accused the government of rushing the bill as a panic reaction after the formation of the INDIA bloc.


"We support the bill. We want to empower all women. But this is nothing but a 'jumla'. This is nothing but a panic reaction (of the ruling dispensation) to the formation of the opposition group INDIA. You are scared of 2024. That is why you have brought this bill." He said the bill should have been brought after a caste census.

BSP MP Sangeta Azad said her party supported the bill but demanded the quota for women should have been raised to 50% and that OBCs too should have been added to it. "Women will feel part of nation-building. We demand the reservation for women should be 50%," Azad said.