Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said the Women's Reservation Bill introduced in Lok Sabha was a "poll gimmick" in its current form. He said that it was a strange trick to adopt the bill now for something that was to come into force only in 2029 after the delimitation exercise and yet-to-be-held census, both of which have unclear completion periods.
According to PTI, Stalin stated the importance of ensuring that there is a quota for women of the Backward Classes. He demanded to assure the people of Tamil Nadu and all of South India that the delimitation process would not damage the states that have managed to regulate their populations.
"Delimitation is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Tamil Nadu and south India. The political conspiracy to lower the political representation of south India must be outmanoeuvred," he said, as per PTI.
In a statement, Stalin demanded to know the reason why the Centre did not show the same interest in passing the Women's Bill, the way it passed the bills to abrogate Article 370 and to bring in 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections quota.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi said that there was no clarity on the implementation of the Bill.
On Women's Reservation Bill, Udhayanidhi Stalin said, "It seems they are not going to implement it now. For the last 10 years, we have been demanding it (women's reservation ). Now they are saying to do a census, delimitation...There is no clarity on when they (the BJP government) are going to implement it."