Opposition writes to govt, asks for all-party meet on women's quota law implementation

The letter has signatories from several opposition parties, except the Trinamool Congress.

New Delhi: Amid plans for tweaking the delimitation timeline to facilitate early implementation of women's quota, Opposition on Wednesday wrote to the Modi government asking for an all-party meeting to discuss 33 per cent reservation in Lok Sabha and Assemblies after April 29, the last day of polling in the latest edition of state elections, and circulation of a note detailing what exactly the proposal is.

The letter signed by leaders of 15 parties, which was delivered to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, came after a meeting of Opposition floor leaders chaired by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge following the government's outreach to a clutch of parties to discuss the modalities of implementing the women's quota.

Trinamool Congress has not signed the letter, which is endorsed by Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, RJD, AAP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP-SP, Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI(ML)L, RSP, JMM, National Conference, Muslim League and VCK, as it does not want to be seen as dealing with ruling BJP during the election season. The Trinamool called it an “election stunt”.

The existing law mandates a delimitation of constituencies following a Census conducted after 2026 for the implementation of 33 per cent quota, which may make it impossible to roll it out for 2029 Lok Sabha polls. In this context, the government appears to be mulling the option of making Census 2011 the base for the delimitation, which will help in its roll out.

The letter said Kharge had on March 16 wrote to Rijiju seeking an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the "modalities and roadmap" for the implementation of the Nari Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, which is officially known as the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act.

Acknowledging the government's plan to further amend the quota law passed in September 2023, the letter said, "all opposition parties now reiterate their demand for an all-party meeting to discuss the proposed Constitution Amendment. To make the meeting more productive, it is necessary for the government to circulate a note detailing what exactly is being proposed".

"The all-party meeting should be held after the current round of assembly elections is completed on April 29, 2026," the letter said. The timeline given by the Opposition makes it clear that it sees the government reaching out as an attempt to derive mileage during the ongoing election process.

Besides Kharge, the signatories to the letter include Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, AAP's Sanjay Singh, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, CPI(M)'s John Brittas, CPI's P Sandosh Kumar, DMK's T Sumathy and P Wilson, NCP(SP) 's Supriya Sule and Fauzia Khan and JMM's Mahua Maji and Joba Majhi

RSP's N K Premachandran, VCK's T Thirumavalavan, CPI(ML)L's Raja Ram and ET Mohammed Basheer (Muslim League) as also National Conference's representative signed the letter.