New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) JD(U) MP, Sanjay Kumar Jha, on Monday launched a sharp attack on Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over her remarks on delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Bill, questioning why such measures were not implemented during the Congress-led UPA government.
Speaking to IANS, Jha said, “If it was already planned earlier, then why wasn’t it implemented when they were in power? Who stopped them?”
He further added that during the UPA regime, when the Bill came up, “Nitish Ji… even went out of his way to support it in Delhi. Who stopped them from implementing it?”
He also argued that the present process marks a significant political and constitutional moment, stating, “So when the Bill is brought, delimitation will also happen, and the number of seats will increase. These seats are based on population… this is a historical moment.”
Taking a dig at the Congress party, Jha remarked, “She just has to make an issue about everything… that is the situation of the Congress today.”
The remarks came after Sonia Gandhi, in an opinion article published in The Hindu, raised strong objections to the Centre’s plan to introduce Bills during a special Parliament session on April 16. She said the “central concern” was delimitation rather than women’s reservation, calling the exercise “extremely dangerous” and an “assault on the Constitution.”
Gandhi also alleged that the government was attempting to “delay and derail” the caste census and criticised the timing of the legislative process, which coincides with election campaigns in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. She further claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to “derive political advantage and place the Opposition on the defensive.”
In her article, she wrote that the government had “declined repeated requests” for an all-party meeting after the recent state elections schedule was announced, and accused Prime Minister Modi of being “economical with the truth” regarding the Opposition’s stance on women’s reservation.
The exchange highlights intensifying political sparring ahead of the special parliamentary session, with both sides trading sharp allegations over constitutional and electoral reforms.
–IANS
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