First hurdle cleared: Rajya Sabha passes women's reservation bill
merisarkar news service
New Delhi, March 09, 2010
Rajya Sabha passes women's reservation bill
Vice President and the Chair of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari declared after the vote, "I think the bill is passed by the required majority." 186 Rajya Sabha MPs voted in the favour of the bill while only one voted against it.
Before the vote the house had to suspend seven unruly members for the rest of the session. Two of them were evicted forcefully by the Marshals.
In a surprising development a key UPA ally Mamata Banerjee decided to abstain from the voting. TMC has two members in the house. 15 Members of the BSP walked out of the house just before the voting.
TMC's abstention from the voting is being seen as a crack in the UPA coalition. Mamata Banerjee, while announcing her decision, said that she was not consulted.
However, as expected, the main opposition Party BJP and Left parties voted in favour of the bill. In a surprising development all the seven Rajya Sabha MPs of JD(U) voted in the favour of the bill after the appeal of the seniour party leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
However, the passing of the bill witnessed stiff opposition from some political parties - namely SP, RJD and Lok janshakti Party.
The bill proposes the reservation of 33 per cent seats in the Parliament and state legislatures for women.
Now government would try to move the bill in the lower house. Congress President Sonia Gandhi said in an interview to a news channel that she is not sure whether the bill will be tabled in the same session or not.
However, she reiterated her and her party's commitment to the bill.
245-member Rajya Sabha has an effective strength of 233. The bill required the backing of at least 155 members and the UPA had the clear support of 165 in the run up to the event.
The bill proposes to reserve for women 181 seats out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies.
