Speaking on the floor of the UP Assembly, senior MLA Kamal Akhtar said the BJP was misguiding the people in the name of women reservation.“The Centre has been stressing on factoring in the 2011 census in deciding the delimitation of constituencies as part of women reservation. This contrasts with UP govt, which was not in favour of conducting panchayat elections based on the 2011 census,” he said, adding that his party was strong in promoting women and giving them reservation in Parliament and state assemblies.SP MLA Ragini Sonkar said the BJP ignored its own woman MLA Anupama Jaiswal, who suffered burn injuries during a protest in Bahraich on April 25.“It was only after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav visited her at the hospital that the two deputy CMs Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak turned up to meet Jaiswal,” she said.Earlier in the day, SP members staged a protest on the Assembly premises, accusing the BJP of misleading the people on the issue of women’s reservation.Holding banners that read, ‘Implement 33% Women’s Reservation,’ the SP members alleged that the BJP was “misleading” the public in the name of women’s quota.SP MLA Sangram Singh said the BJP was deliberately withholding the benefits of this legislation from women solely to facilitate the delimitation of constituencies according to its own preferences.“The BJP stood exposed on this issue. It has been anti-women from the very beginning. It is our socialist leaders like Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Mulayam Singh Yadav who have always championed women’s rights,” he said.Demanding immediate implementation of the women’s reservation law, SP MLA Amitabh Bajpai questioned why the BJP was failing to enforce a statute that was passed in 2023. He further demanded that the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the women’s reservation law.Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Lal Bihari Yadav, asserted that the SP was a staunch proponent of women’s reservation.“The women’s reservation bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament in 2023. We harbour no opposition whatsoever to women’s reservation. Rather, the BJP is misleading the public under the guise of women’s empowerment,” he said.
