Oppn raises doubts on govt's attempt at early implementation of reservation for women in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Opposition views the Modi government’s attempt at early implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and Assemblies through delimitation based on Census 2011 instead of the 2027 exercise that counts caste as an attempt to avoid the quagmire of possible demands for quota within quota for OBCs.

They also seek to club the timing of the move with the latest edition of Assembly elections and have demanded that an all-party meeting be called after April 29, the last day of polling, insisting that the reach out by the government was an attempt to derive mileage during the polls in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal where the Opposition has the edge.

The exact contours of the proposal are not known to the Opposition but available details showed that the government is planning a two-pronged strategy by conducting delimitation of constituencies with Census 2011 as the base to increase the number of seats and then use it for choosing constituencies to be reserved for women.

If one goes by the proposal, the number of seats in Lok Sabha could rise from 543 to 816 of which 273 earmarked for women. Similarly, Assembly seats will also increase by 50 per cent.

The government is pitching for using Census 2011 for delimitation mainly on the ground that the ongoing Census exercise will not provide the data that could be used for redrawing constituencies before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and it would further delay the implementation of 33 per cent quota.

A senior Congress leader questioned the urgency shown by the government when it knew the timeline of Census 2027 and the time that would be taken for the delimitation exercise. Another aspect highlighted by the Opposition was the aspect of caste count added for the first time in the Census in independent India.

The Congress leader said that a delimitation after Census 2027 would raise the demand for quota within quota for OBC women and the ruling BJP may want to avoid it. “That is why they are using the facade of early implementation and for that, the way out is using Census 2011,” the leader said.

Incidentally, the move will also require amendments to the Constitution, which now provides for delimitation only after the “first census conducted after the year 2026”.

The last couple of weeks had seen the government managers reaching out to major Opposition parties for a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah but Congress, the main Opposition party, was opposed to “selective” meetings and called for an all-party meeting.

Trinamool Congress, DMK and CPI(M) also did not meet Shah though parties like AIMIM, NCP(SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), YSR Congress and BJD went for the meeting. A senior Trinamool Congress leader called the government move a “purely political stunt”.

The Opposition wants to avoid any discussion on the issue during the polls and has written to the government seeking an all-party meeting only after the polling concludes on April 29.

It is also concerned that it has no details about the proposals, forcing it to ask the government to circulate “a note detailing what exactly is being proposed”.