Congress women’s wing launches postcard drive for women’s quota

The Congress’s women’s wing on Wednesday launched a ‘postcard campaign’, demanding the immediate implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women based on the current Lok Sabha strength of 543 seats.

Under the initiative, the party said the goal is to have 10 lakh women send postcards addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making their demands. All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba, along with Congress SC Department chairman Rajendra Pal Gautam and the party’s OBC Department head Anil ‘JaiHind’ Yadav, inaugurated the campaign here.

Lamba stated that women would send these postcards to the prime minister’s official residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, demanding the immediate implementation of the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 and calling for a separate reservation provision within the Act specifically for OBC women, alongside those for SC and ST women.

“Our demand is that women’s reservation be implemented immediately on the current strength of the Lok Sabha - 543, and women from the OBC category also be included in this reservation. Besides, a caste census will be conducted, and delimitation will be carried out subsequently based on the findings of that census,” Lamba said at a press conference here.

The Mahila Congress chief said her organisation’s campaign would continue throughout the months of May and June.

Lamba suggested that the Government could implement the women’s reservation by convening either the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament or calling a special session.

The Congress’ initiative came days after the Government’s Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to implement women’s quota and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 was defeated in the Lower House on April 17.

While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. The Bill was defeated as it failed to secure a two-thirds majority or 352 votes.

The Bill proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.

Seats were also to be increased in assemblies of states and Union territories to accommodate a 33 per cent reservation for women.