Panaji: Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress president Pratiksha Khalap said that the BJP was using the Women’s Reservation Bill as a political tool for electoral gain.
She said that while 33% political reservation for women is important, the BJP is hastily attempting to pass the Nari Shakti Vandana Adhiniyam Bill in Parliament during a special session from April 16 to 18 without taking opposition parties into consensus.
“This shows that everything is being done from an election point of view and potentially to manipulate delimitation boundaries based on political advantage, as the census is not yet completed,” Khalap said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
She said there is a genuine fear that constituencies will be redrawn not for fair representation, but to suit the BJP’s electoral interests, especially in areas where they have lost in the past.
“The Women’s Reservation Bill is extremely important. It is a long-pending demand, and the Congress has always supported it. It has to be passed and implemented. We
need to see women leaders in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies. We welcome women’s reservation wholeheartedly. But the process must be fair, transparent, and constitutional,” she said.
She said the 106th Constitutional Amendment clearly states that under Section 334A reservation for women will come into effect only after delimitation is carried out.
“General delimitation can disturb the federal structure of India. States with higher populations, particularly in North India, will gain more seats, while southern states with controlled population growth may lose representation. This creates a serious imbalance,” Khalap said.
State vice president Saiee Volvoikar and north district president Mollie da Gama Silva were also present.
