‘PM Modi remains top choice of women voters’ says actor-MP Ravi Kishan ahead of special Parliament session on quota bill

Actor-politician Ravi Kishan on Tuesday welcomed the move to implement the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, saying it will allow more women MPs to raise issues in their constituencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first choice of women during elections, Kishan said.

“The Prime Minister's idea has infused all women with a new energy. Now there will be 33 per cent women's representation in the Parliament, and they will bring forward the issues of their constituencies,” Kishan told news agency ANI in Patna.

The Parliament will reconvene on 16 April to pass bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816, so that the women's reservation law can be implemented at the earliest. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that Parliament will convene a special session on 16 April to take up the Women's Reservation Bill.

"Everyone knows in this country, during voting, the first choice of women is Narendra Modi. You have seen the results in elections. Be it Hindus or Muslims, the support that PM Modi gets. Reservation for women was important, and I welcome this move," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP told the news agency.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh questioned the timing of the Bill, calling it a move to "divert attention from the grave economic crisis" and influence voters in five poll-bound states.

In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh said, "The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 was passed unanimously by Parliament in Sept 2023. The Indian National Congress had demanded its implementation from the 2024 election itself. But the Modi Govt introduced a condition that the reservation will come into effect only after delimitation and the census is completed. This is Article 334-A that had got inserted then."

Jairam Ramesh said that PM Modi is using the government's latest stance on the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam as an election issue.

"Now, all of a sudden, to divert public attention from the grave economic crisis and in order to influence voters in the five states, the PM has decided that Article 334-A should be amended to do away with delimitation and census pre-requisite. He has woken up after 30 months and done another U-turn. Now he is using this as an election issue. The people in the five states will give him a resounding reply and decisively reject the BJP," he added.

However, PM Modi has urged the Congress to give full support to the proposed amendment to the Women's Reservation Bill, which will be taken up during the special sitting of Parliament on 16 April and said the opposition party should not play politics over the issue.

Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed the plan with some NDA constituents and some non-Congress opposition floor leaders. But consultations with the principal opposition party, Congress, and another major party, TMC, were yet to take place.

According to the broad contours available, the number of Lok Sabha seats would be increased from the present 543 to 816, with 273 seats reserved for women. The reservation will also be made on a "vertical basis," with seats allocated to SCs and STs. The redrawing of constituencies will be based on the 2011 census rather than the proposed 2027 census.

(With inputs from agencies)