NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Ultimately male banter won the day. At the all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma today, the elected representatives refused to knock together a consensus on the controversial bill providing for 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Srikant Jena promised more discussions on the issue, but the bill effectively stands deferred till the Winter session.Stiff resistance from Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shiv Sena curtailed the fate of the bill yet again. Instead of passing the bill, Yadav suggested that the Representation of People's Act be amended to make it compulsory for political parties to give 10 to 20 per cent tickets to women.

However, there did not seem to be many takers for the minister's suggestion.Although the bill was to be taken up today for consideration and voting, Yadav made it clear at the close-door meeting in the Speaker's chamber that his Samajwadi Party would oppose it tooth and nail.

In the presence of Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Yadav said that he had opposed the bill at a meeting of the Union Cabinet because he believed that this kind of reservation was neither fair nor just.

Yadav was supported by Madhukar Sarpotdar of Shiv Sena, who was asked by P A Sangma to evolve a consensus on the issue. As most parties differed over the bill, the government asked the Speaker to find an amicable solution.

Geeta Mukherjee of the Communist Party of India, who had coordinated a joint parliamentary panel on the issue came out of the 90-minute meeting crying.

``They should not have done this to a cause. They all pledged support and when it came to the passing of the bill, they developed cold-feet. It had been cleared by all the committees of the Parliament,'' she told The Indian Express

. She said that even if the bill was taken up for discussion later, its passage would be near impossible considering the differences in the United Front.

However, Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan asserted that he supported the bill. Members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party did not attend the meeting, but Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram pledged support to the bill at the meeting on behalf of his party.

Jaswant Singh, deputy leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha, also pledged his party's support to the bill. Santosh Mohan Deb, chief whip of the Congress echoed similar sentiments. George Fernandes (Samata Party) and Kanshi Ram (Bahujan Samaj Party) left the meeting halfway.

The BJP later severely criticised the government's attitude towards the women's reservation bill and said it ``did not seem to be keen'' in bringing forward the legislation due to differences within the United Front constituents.

``The United Front is not able to muster majority support for the bill and is therefore not being brought in Lok Sabha. The BJP, however, supports it,'' party vice president Krishan Lal Sharma told newsmen here today.

Sharma said Prime Minister I K Gujral nor any other UF leaderhad said anything on the bill today.UF meet tomorrow

An emergency meeting of the United Front's Core and Steering Committees has been called on Wednesday. Highly placed sources in the UF say that the meeting has been called at the behest of Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral who is disturbed by the recent developments.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.