How do India’s major political parties stack up when it comes to women’s representation in the Lok Sabha? West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress comes in first with 11 of its 29 MPs (37.93%) women, while Tamil Nadu’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) comes second with five of its 37 MPs (18.18%) women.
These are the current numbers of the 18th Lok Sabha – at a time when there has been massive debate on how and when to implement the 2023 law that provides a 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and assemblies.
Numbers decoded
Here’s a look at the percentage of women in each of the opposition parties — including Congress, TMC and others. These are also the parties that Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned in his address to the nation on Saturday evening, April 18.
Party MPsTotal MPs MPs Share of women in Congress149914.14%TMC112937.93%Samajwadi Party53713.50%DMK42218.18%
How many women MPs does BJP have in LS?
The Bharatiya Janata Party has 31 women MPs in the Lok Sabha – the most in terms of absolute numbers compared to the TMC, SP, DMK. However, when we look at it as part of the total 240 MPs that the saffron party has – the percentage is 12.9%.
What did the PM say
In his address to the nation on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi lashed out at opposition parties after the Women’s Reservation Bill – the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill – failed to pass the Lok Sabha in the legislatures.
Calling the Congress “anti-women”, the Prime Minister said the grand old party had opposed several policies like SIR among others. He said parties like SP, TMC – all had “an opportunity to contribute to women’s empowerment but they lost the chance”.
“I was deeply saddened to see that when this women’s welfare bill was defeated, dynastic parties like Congress, DMK, TMC and Samajwadi Party clapped with joy,” Modi said.
To pass the lower house of parliament, the bill needed a two-thirds majority of the Lok Sabha, which is around 360 votes. However, only 298 MPs voted for the bill, and on Friday, April 17, 230 MPs voted against it.
What the bill proposed
According to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Act, the seats in the Lok Sabha were to be increased to 816 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the Women’s Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary elections, following the census-based delimitation exercise in 2011. The number of seats in the state and UT assemblies was also to be increased to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
Why did the opposition vote against the bill?
– During the women’s quota debate in the Lok Sabha on Friday, April 17 – Rahul Gandhi claimed that the proposed legislation was “an attempt to change the electoral map of the country while hiding behind Indian women”. He also claimed that the government was going to take away representation from South India – adding that the opposition would not allow the government to do that.
– Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who took part in the debate, argued that the government had unnecessarily conflated a “moral imperative” with a “demographic minefield”.
