NEW DELHI, 23 August 2005 — Just ahead of the meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to evolve a consensus on the Women’s Reservation Bill, providing one-third reservation for women in the Parliament and state legislatures, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharati literally fired a missile yesterday signaling her own stand. The firebrand lady is not inclined to toe her own party’s line on the issue.

Uma met party President L.K. Advani yesterday and handed him a letter demanding 50 percent quota for schedule caste, schedule tribe and other backward class women within the proposed 33 percent reservation bill.

“I am opposed to the bill in its present form,” Uma said after meeting Advani. She also voiced her stand to leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh.

Uma asserted that before participating in the all-party meeting, the BJP should take a firm view on the issue.

When questioned on the “party stand,” supporting the proposed bill, voiced last week by party leader Sushma Swaraj, during a meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Uma replied that it was “Sushma’s personal view.”

Claiming that the issue has not been discussed in the party so far, Uma said: “You cannot give a party view unless you discuss it in the party. I have been demanding a discussion on the subject for the last eight years. But strangely no discussion has taken place so far, which is totally undemocratic.”

Meanwhile at the two-and-a-half hour meeting of United Progressive Alliance constituents and supporting parties, including Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, chaired by Manmohan, a consensus could not be reached on the bill.

Leaders of Left parties, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janashakti Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Telangana Rashtriya Samiti also attended the meeting. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad were also present.

In the face of opposition to the original bill, there was also a proposal to increase the number of seats and then reserve one-third for women. The seats in 545-member Lok Sabha could be increased to 900 with 300 reserved for women.

After the meeting, RJD chief and Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said if the bill in its original form was introduced, then separate quotas should be earmarked for Muslims, SC, ST and OBC women. If not, he favored only ten or a maximum 15 percent reservation for women.

Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said that 33 percent reservation was against democratic norms. With seats already reserved for SC and ST, reserving additional 33 percent seats for women would affect other sections of society, he said.

“This will be unfair,” he said. If the government goes ahead with the bill, the SP leader said that his party would oppose it. He favored leaving 10 percent seats for women while distributing tickets.

Though the BSP is not against reservation for women, as expressed by party chief Mayawati, it is in favor of quota for SC, ST and OBC women within the reservation.

While LJP leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan favored quota within the reservation for women, he also said: “But the bill should not be stopped.”

Asserting that the left bloc wanted the bill to be passed without further delay, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said: “We have left it to the government as to in which form it wants to bring in the bill.”

However, with major UPA constituent RJD and outside supporters SP and BSP demanding quota within quota, the bill is unlikely to see the light of the day during the current session of Parliament.