BJP hastening with Women’s Reservation Bill only to deny quota for OBC women: Manickam Tagore

The BJP-led NDA was hurriedly attempting to bring in Women’s Reservation Bill before taking up caste-based census and delimitation processes only to deny reservation for women belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), accused Congress MP B. Manickam Tagore.

The BJP-led NDA was hurriedly attempting to bring in Women’s Reservation Bill before taking up caste-based census and delimitation processes only to deny reservation for women belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), accused Congress MP B. Manickam Tagore.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr. Tagore said when the Women’s Reservation Bill was discussed in 2023, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi insisted that the reservation for women should be implemented in 2024 Lok Sabha election.

However, the Union Government claimed that it wanted to implement the Bill in a three-step process of completing the population census, taking up delimitation exercise and bringing in the Bill.

However, during the Bharat Nyay Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi insisted on caste-based census, which caught the aspirations of the OBCs in north India.

“This led to the BJP losing 110 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The RSS which read the mood of the OBCs said the issue of caste-based census could not be ignored,” the Virudhunagar MP said.

Stating that women candidates would get 272 seats reserved for them, Mr. Tagore alleged that the Centre did not want to give more seats to OBC women and hence wanted to decide on the Bill before the caste-based census and delimitation exercise were completed.