Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 15 : Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday alleged that the Centre is rushing the delimitation process amid ongoing elections in five states, claiming it assumes MPs from those states will be absent during voting.
He asserted that members will be present and the Opposition will take a collective decision to defeat the bill.
Speaking to ANI, Raut said, "The way they are rushing to bring this bill, with elections underway in 5 states, they (BJP) think that the MPs from those states won't come for voting, but everyone is coming for voting. We will take a collective decision and defeat the bill."
"We will support the Women's Reservation Bill, but the game of delimitation being played under its guise is very dangerous," he further added.
Earlier today, the India bloc leaders decided to oppose the delimitation bill pushed with an amendment to Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, to provide 33 per cent reservation for women legislators in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
The opposition clarified that it is not against the women's reservation and urged them to implement Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, but objected to the delimitation process, which they believe weakens the representation of the southern and north-eastern states in the Lok Sabha.
The decision was made in a meeting at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi. Along with Congress President, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, RJD Working President Tejashwi Yadav, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, and other prominent INDIA bloc leaders attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Mallikarjun Kharge announced the INDIA bloc's decision, accusing the government of making a "politically motivated" move to suppress the opposition parties.
"We are all in favour of the Women's Reservation Bill. But the way in which they have brought it, we have reservations about that. It is politically motivated. Just to suppress the Opposition parties, the govt is doing this. Though we have supported the Women's Reservation Bill continuously, we insist that the earlier amendments be implemented. They are playing some tricks with delimitation. We all parties should unitedly should fight in Parliament. We will oppose this bill, but we are not against the reservation (for women)," Kharge said.
"The way in which they have put in the bill, be it delimitation, they have not even cleared the census. All powers of the Constitution are being taken by the executive. Mostly, the power which can be exercised by the institutions, the parliament they have given is so that they can change delimitation at any time... They have already deceived us in Assam and J&K," he added.
The Parliament is set to meet on April 16, 17,18 in a special sitting of the budget session to discuss amendments to Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 and a proposed Delimitation Bill to implement the one-third reservation for women legislators.