Mayawati seeks prompt implementation, wants provisions which 'delay' quota for women dropped

If this was not done, it would prove that the government had brought the bill not with a view to empower women but to merely secure their votes in the coming elections, she said.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, who has said her party will back the bill even if its demands are not met, urged the government to drop certain clauses to ensure the draft legislation was enforced immediately.

She alleged that certain provisions of the bill had been framed in such a way that the benefit of the reservation would not reach women for 15 or 16 years or "several elections" later.

At the same time, Mayawati slammed the Congress saying it was now seeking quota within quota for the SC/ST and OBC women after having ignored them in its bill during the UPA government.

The Centre on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving a bill pending for nearly three decades because of lack of consensus among parties.

"The provisions which need to be mentioned here are that after the passage of the bill a census will be carried out in the country followed by the delimitation for Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

"This means it will not be implemented immediately," she told the media.

A census takes several years to complete, and the last one was carried out in 2011, Mayawati said.

"In such a situation, the new census will take several years and then delimitation will also take several years and only then the reservation will be implemented," the leader said.

"It is clear, that this bill has not been brought with the clear intention of giving reservation to women but is aimed at getting the votes of gullible women in the coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections

"It is nothing more than that and the conditions kept in the bill prove this. If such is not the case, the BSP urges the government to drop these two provisions from the bill or take such steps as could help women get the benefit of reservation bill immediately," she said.

She again appealed for a separate quota for women from SC/ST category in the 33 per cent reservation.

She, however, said her party will support the bill even if its conditions were not met, considering women of the 'sarv samaj' are still backward as compared to men.

Attacking the Congress, Mayawati said the bill brought by its government in the past could not be passed as it lacked the clause for a separate quota for these sections.

She alleged that the Congress is now advocating separate quotas for women of these sections for its own political benefit.

The women of the country need to remain alert from such parties as they will not get anything from them, she said.

(With agency inputs)