The bill to give women 33 per cent reservation in parliament and state assemblies was passed by the Lok Sabha today. Once it becomes law, it would hugely change the situation of Madhya Pradesh assembly.
Women comprise less than 10 per cent of the assembly's 230 members at the moment. Only 21 women were elected to the 230-member legislature in the last assembly election. Of them, 11 were from the BJP, 10 from the Congress, and one from the Bahujan Samaj Party.
In contrast, the state has 2.67 crore women voters – which is 48.36 per cent of the total 5.52 crore voters.
If the bill is passed, 76 women MLAs would sit in the Madhya Pradesh assembly.
In the last three assembly elections, the BJP has fielded 10 per cent women candidates, the Congress 12 per cent.
In 2008, BJP gave assembly tickets to 23 women, of whom 15 got elected. In 2013, 23 women got tickets, 17 won. But in 2018, only 11 of 24 women were elected.
The Congress gave tickets to 28 women in 2008, of whom six won. In 2013, only six of 23 women candidates won. In 2018, party gave tickets to 28 women, nine made it to the assembly.
The BJP and the Congress are both backing the women's reservation bill and competing to take credit for it.
Senior Congress leader Shobha Ojha said the BJP had said in its 2014 manifesto that they would implement the Women's Reservation Bill but it took them nine years to do so.
"Now they are bringing this bill because of the elections. They know voters are angry because of inflation, corruption. I want to thank late Rajiv Gandhi ji for this bill, because this was his idea," she said.
Senior BJP leader and former minister Alka Jain gave all the credit to former Prime Minister and party icon Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Even during his tenure at the top job, efforts were made regarding the Women's Reservation Bill but it was not successful. There are four assembly constituencies in Katni, but there is no woman MLA, she said.
