Bhubaneswar: The special session of the Assembly to be convened by the BJP government on April 30, is set to be stormy with the ruling party likely to bring a censure motion against the opposition BJD and Congress for not supporting the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Parliament.
The special session has been convened in Odisha to discuss women reservation issues and highlight BJP’s commitment to the cause. Other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Haryana have planned such sessions as part of the party’s broader strategy to gain an upper hand on the issue.
Besides taking on the BJD and Congress for playing the lead role in campaigning against the Bills on women’s reservation and delimitation exercise which could not be passed in the Lok Sabha because of lack of two-third majority, the state government will also highlight during the session its achievements for women empowerment in the last 19 months in power.
The state government also has a plan to pass a resolution encouraging the Centre to implement the women’s quota. Several schemes launched by the state government for women including Subhadra Yojana will be discussed during the session, which will include around eight hours discussion.
Sources said, the BJD will be the main target of the government as party president Naveen Patnaik had actively campaigned against the Bills, which included delimitation exercise to increase seats of Lok Sabha, by writing letters to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and all MPs from Odisha irrespective of party affiliations, to oppose them stating it will dilute political powers of Odisha. Naveen had stated that the representation of Odisha in Lok Sabha will decrease from 3.9 percent to 3.4 percent if the Bills were passed.
Sources said the legislature parties of BJD and Congress will have a meeting to decide on their counterattack during the session. A senior BJD leader said the state BJP MPs surrendered before the Centre by supporting the Bills in Parliament which were against the interest of the state. Besides, the rising crime against women in Odisha will also be a major point of the BJD and Congress during the discussion.
Meanwhile, the BJD on Sunday alleged that even though the Women’s Reservation Bill, titled Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, was passed by the Parliament in 2023 and received Presidential assent, the BJP did not implement it. It is instead blaming the Opposition of misleading the people.
Addressing a media conference here, BJD Rajya Sabha MP Sulata Deo and party’s senior general secretary Lekhasri Samantasinghar said the BJP did not give priority to women in 2024 elections while the BJD had fielded 33 per cent women candidates in Lok Sabha seats.
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