Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said BJP govt at the Centre was showing haste in pushing through the women reservation bill as it wants to avoid ‘quota within quota’ that it would be forced to give if the bill was passed post the current census and caste enumeration.“I am all for reservation for women but against the jugglery that the BJP is up to as a part of a conspiracy. The BJP and its associates prefer to maintain a studied silence when it comes to extending reservation to women from the Backward Class,” he said.The SP chief reiterated his stand that Centre’s Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women Reservation Bill) was an electoral distraction and insisted that the reservation should be given only after the current census and caste enumeration was completed so that the correct statistics were available to decide the reservation for women.He pitched for quota within quota for the women from Other Backward Castes, Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes and Minorities in ratio of their proportion in population.“The haste being shown indicates that the BJP is on its way out. The fact is that the BJP wants to defer the census and thereby do away with caste enumeration. Because once census is completed, there will be demand for proportionate reservation and quota within quota, which the BJP and its associates never want to give,” Akhilesh said.Akhilesh said the BJP makes political moves, and when the party realises that a particular set of people have seen through their designs, the party chooses a fresh set of people. “With this bill, the BJP is trying to mislead the women population. But since women are the worst hit in the BJP regime, they will not bite the bait. It is the women who have to bear the brunt of rising LPG prices and a soaring crime rate. They will not be hoodwinked by the BJP anymore,” Akhilesh said.An SP strategist said the BJP passed the Bill in 2023 but not implemented it immediately on grounds that it was linked to the census and delimitation that will follow.“Now, suddenly the BJP wants to implement it without explaining the urgency,” said a senior SP leader adding that: “The BJP is always looking for ways to counter SP’s announcement that once voted to form govt in 2027 elections, the SP will introduce ‘Stree Samman Samriddhi Yojana’ to provide a financial support of Rs 40,000 annually to poor women in the state.”
