NEW DELHI: Congress chiefMallikarjun Khargeon Saturday led the opposition charge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he pinned the blame on them for the defeat of the women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha.In a social media post on X, Kharge accusedPM Modiof turning an official address into a political speech, claiming that he mentioned Congress 59 times and women barely a few times.”A desperate and frustrated PM with nothing meaningful to show for the last 12 years, turned an official address to the nation, into a political speech, full of mudslinging, and outright lies,” Kharge said.”Prime Minister mentioned Congress 59 times and women barely a few times.That tells the country everything about his priorities. Women are not the BJP’s priority. Congress is, because Congress stands on the right side of history. Congress has always supported women’s reservation,” he added.Read also:’Dreams of ‘nari shakti’ crushed despite our best effort;’ PM Modi apologises to nation’s women- Top quotesThe Congress chief also highlighted that it took Centre 3 years to notify the Women’s Reservation Bill after it was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2023.”The BJP could not get that Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. They brought another Bill in 2023, and the Congress Party supported that too.That Bill still exists. In fact, it was notified on 16th April, while the Lok Sabha was discussing these delimitation Constitutional Amendment Bills. This was done by the same Prime Minister. The fact that it took the BJP 3 years to notify their own bill shows their commitment to India’s Naari Shakti,” Kharge said.”Modi ji should stop lying to the nation. He should implement 33% reservation for women in the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats under the 2023 law.Do not deny women their due representation now. Stop mixing up the delimitation bills, i.e., the 3 Constitution Amendment Bills, with the Women’s Reservation Bill. Stop lying to the nation that this was an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill – the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.It was NOT. This was purely a delimitation Bill, brought in to create further division and redraw the electoral map in a manner that can only benefit the BJP,” he added.PM chose to mislead the nation rather than address it honestly: Mamata BanerjeeMeanwhile, Mamata Banerjee also targeted the Prime Minister and said that he chose to “mislead the nation rather than address it honestly.”In a post on X, West Bengal chief minister said that the question of TMC opposing the Women’s Reservation does not arise and the party is fundamentally opposed to delimitation process that Modi government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda.”Let me put this on record. Trinamool Congress has always championed higher political representation for women. We have the highest proportion of female elected representatives in both Parliament and the State Legislature. In the Lok Sabha, 37.9% of our elected members are women. In the Rajya Sabha, we have nominated 46% women members. The question of opposing Women’s Reservation does not arise and never has,” Mamata said.”What we are fundamentally opposed to is the Delimitation exercise that the Modi Government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda. What we are fundamentally opposed to is the altering of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution, the division of this nation and the usurpation of power through gerrymandering, by redrawing political contours to hand greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others.This is an assault on federal democracy. And we will not watch it happen in silence,” she added.’Defeat of BJP’s malicious intent’: AkhileshMeanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the defeat of the bill as “defeat of BJP and its malicious intent.”While talking to reporters, Akhilesh said that the bill was introduced by the Centre was designed either to benefit few or to serve as deceptive ploy to divide society.”Defeat of so-called Women’s Reservation Bill is a defeat of BJP and their malicious intent; every effort and every bill introduced by BJP is designed either to benefit few or to serve as deceptive ploy to divide society,” the Samajwadi Party leader said.’This is democracy; this is not a Hitler-style rule’: DKSKarnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar also criticised over the timing and handling bill and said that the opposition was not taken into confidence.He also called for wider consultation in a democratic framework.Also read:Women reservation bill fails in Lok Sabha: Strategic move or poor planning?DKS said that Congress has consistently supported women’s reservation, but objected to the manner in which the Bill was brought forward, alleging that it was introduced without adequate discussion with opposition parties.“This is democracy; this is not a Hitler-style rule. They cannot bring it in the middle of elections and try to alter the entire constituencies,” Shivakumar told reporters here.Responding to BJP’s charge that the Congress is anti-women, he said, “This is not anyone’s personal property—women are the nation’s asset.We had passed this in the Rajya Sabha and Congress has already given 50 per cent reservation to women in local bodies. Even today, we support it.”Alleging that the proposed changes could impact regional representation, Shivakumar said, “Without consulting us, they are trying to redraw constituencies, giving more weight to North India and reducing representation in South India. No one can tolerate this.” He added that leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and several South Indian chief ministers have opposed the move, terming the defeat of the bills a “major victory for democracy”.Earlier on Saturday, PM Modi said that the failure of the women’s reservation bill was a setback for women across the country and apologised for not being able to ensure its passage despite efforts by his government.This follows a major setback for the government in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, which proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures and an increase in Lok Sabha seats to 816, was defeated.The proposal aimed to increase Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 to implement women’s reservation ahead of the 2029 parliamentary elections, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census. It also planned to expand seats in state and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate the quota.
