NEW DELHI, May 17: A day after the strident dissent in his party almost threatened to stall the Women's Bill, Prime Minister I K Gujral today tried to strike a conciliatory note by saying that ``the opponents to the measure would be persuaded to support it.''

At the same time, however, in an indication that there is still a long way to go, Gujral called for a ``nationwide debate'' on the Bill so that the ``modalities'' of extending reservation to women and the more critical issue of the quantum of reservation could be evolved.

Since the Bill has already been introduced in Parliament, there can be no going back. However, given Gujral's tone today, there appears a strong likelihood that following the ``national debate,'' drastic changes would be made in the spirit and letter of the Bill.

In other words, there could be a reduction of the reservation to a figure between 20 and 25 per cent, a figure which would be more acceptable to many of the diehard opponents.

The CPI(M), however, took a more strident line today demanding a special session of Parliament for the adoption of the Bill and dismissing criticism by observing that ``progressive legislation is always opposed by socially conservative and fundamentalist forces''.

``The people must know the parties which will uphold this commitment and those who are going back on it,'' the CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement. The sharp differences that surfaced yesterday over the women's reservation bill were due in large part to the possibility of upto a 180 seats in the Lok Sabha being given over to women. However, the long shadow of political developments in Bihar also helped to crystallise the divisions in Delhi. The majority of the dissenters in the Treasury benches were from Bihar, and are loyal to beleaguered Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

In the 540-member House, at present only 39 are women. If the Bill were to be made into law, their numbers would increase four-fold. By implication, around a hundred-odd male members would stand to lose their seats to women.