Consensus eludes EC meet on reservation for women

Consensus eludes EC meet on reservation for women
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29: Consensus eluded Election Commission's suggestion on fixing a quota for women contestants and other contentious issues at an all-party meeting convened by the Commission here on Saturday.

Almost all political parties except Samajwadi Party rejected the proposal on fixing a specified percentage of women candidates in all state and Parliamentary elections to ensure a sizeable increase in their representation.

"All contentious issues were talked about at great length," Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said, adding the Commission could not make the law on electoral reforms but could only give suggestions.

The meeting discussed among others delimitation of constituencies, qualification for contestants for Rajya Sabha, disciplinary jurisdiction of EC over officials employed in poll duty, criminalisation of politics and use of common electoral rolls.

On the EC's proposal that political parties should fix a quota for women contestants, which met with strong opposition from women's organisations, Gill said though all parties felt something should be done, there was difference of opinion among them.

However, he hoped the deliberation on the issue will continue to reach some consensus before the on-going Budget Session of Parliament ends on May 17. "Let us see what they (parties) do in the next 20 days," he said.

While BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu said that the government had already introduced a Bill and would try to evolve a broad consensus on the issue, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said another effort should be made to reach a unanimity on the Bill pending in the Lok Sabha.

``We want to have further dialogue with political parties,'' Naidu said adding that the government was committed to reservation for women.

Mukherjee said ``let this issue remain where it is'' as there was no guarantee that political parties would provide certain number of seats to women as suggested by the Commission.

However, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, a staunch opponent to the present Bill, welcomed EC's suggestion and hoped that political parties would support the measure.

The Commission's proposal envisaged that the parties fix such a percentge for women candidates that the accepted success rate was enough to ensure a sizeable increase in the presence of women in Parliament.

The three-member poll panel had noted that the current representation of women in Parliament was about eight per cent. It had said that if its proposal was taken up ``the controversy of further internal reservation will also become unnecessary''.

Ramachandran Pillai (CPI-M) And A B Bardhan (CPI) said that the EC proposal would not ensure adequate reservation for women and efforts should be made a evolve consensus. The same view was echoed by Devendra Dwivedi of the NCP.

Political parties remained divided on key issues like delimitation of constituencies, qualification for election to the Rajya Sabha, disciplinary jurisdiction of the Commission over the officials employed in conducting polls and criminalisation of politics.

On the delimitation of constituencies, while BJP said that there should be consensus among political parties whether to entrust the task with the poll panel or the Delimittion commission, Congress opposed ``over burdening'' the EC with the work and instead wanted it to be given to the Delimittion Commission.