Janata Dal-United split over Women Reservation Bill

PATNA - The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) is most likely to split over the Women Reservation Bill with reports coming up that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may form a new party now.

Five JD-U members including Shivanand Tiwari, N K Singh, Ali Anwar, Mahendra Prasad and Bhagwan Sahni endorsed Kumar’s line to support the legislation and defied Sharad Yadav’s opposition to the Bill.

Sources said there was difference of opinion between Nitish Kumar and party chief Sharad Yadav with respect to the Bill with members of the party later divided into two factions on the issue.

Party members, who had aligned themselves with Yadav on the issue earlier claimed that the Bill would oppose the women’s quota on the ground that it would tilt the electoral field against the OBCs and accused the Chief Minister of ignoring the interests of upper castes.

With Sharad Yadav faction all set to vote against the Bill, differences are set to evolve when the issue is taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha.

History was created in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when it voted by an overwhelming majority a Bill to reserve one-third of seats in Lok Sabha and Assemblies for women after government pushed ahead with it, ignoring possible threats to its stability and after eviction of troublesome MPs opposed to it.

Fourteen years after the first attempt was made in the Lok Sabha and repeated failures subsequently, the Constitution amendment bill was adopted in the mandatory division with 186 members voting for it and one voting against.

In the 245-member House with an effective strength of 233, the bill required the backing of at least 155 members and the UPA had the clear support of 165 in the run up to the event.

The bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies. (ANI)