Patna (Bihar)

Female workers and leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday took out a 'Jan-Aakrosh Mahila Padyatra' in Patna to protest against the failure of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha.

Earlier, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary accused the opposition of lacking commitment to women's empowerment and questioned why political opportunities remain confined to a few families. He said the Bill's passage would have significantly increased women's representation, both in Bihar and at the national level.

Highlighting Bihar's record, the Chief Minister said the state has already taken significant steps toward women's empowerment. "There are only 29 female MLAs in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. If this bill had been passed, there would have been at least 122 MLAs," he said. He further added that since 2006, when the NDA government introduced 50 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati Raj and municipal bodies, participation has exceeded expectations.

"Today, Bihar has 50 per cent reservation, but more than 59 per cent of women are winning elections," Choudhary said, underlining the impact of grassroots reservation policies. He also pointed out that the proposed legislation would have significantly increased women's representation in Parliament."

Choudhary accused opposition leaders of hypocrisy and alleged they support women's political participation selectively.

"They are content if a daughter from their own household becomes an MP, but cannot tolerate a daughter from someone else's home attaining that status," he said.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, hit out at the Bihar Chief Minister over his remarks on the Women's Reservation Amendment Bill. The leader alleged that the ruling BJP was attempting to push delimitation under the guise of empowering women.

Speaking to reporters, Yadav said, "Samrat Choudhary has become the Chief Minister, but he hasn't grasped this bill. Under the guise of women, these people wanted to do delimitation... He has become the Chief Minister, but what will he do? Whatever the Gujarati brothers say, he will do that. People are coming from Delhi's PMO to run him."

The remarks came following the defeat of the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, which failed to secure the required two-thirds majority, with 298 votes in favour and 230 against on Friday during the special Parliament sitting.

PM Narendra Modi's government had assured that the number of MPs would increase from 543 to 816. If this bill had been passed, out of 816 MPs, 272 would have been women," he said, calling it a missed opportunity for structural reform.

The Lok Sabha took up the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-first Amendment) Bill, the Delimitation Bill, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill together for passing. In the division that took place on the Constitution Amendment Bill following the debate on the three bills, 298 members voted in favour and 230 against.

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With the Constitution Amendment Bill defeated, the government later said it did not want to pursue the two other linked bills.

The bills aimed to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816, with 33 per cent reservation for women. The delimitation was to be carried out based on the 2011 census. The government said there will be a proportionate increase in seats for all states.