The Women’s Reservation Bill has put the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc in a spot, with almost all member parties expected to come out in support of the legislation, although they are trying to discount the political capital that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP hope to earn from it by pointing out the rider in the Bill, which says that its implementation depends on the delimitation exercise scheduled for 2026.
Two of the Bill’s biggest critics, who had stalled it in 2010 — the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) — continue to maintain their demand for a “quota within the quota” for Other Backward Classes (OBC). But unlike in 2010, they have not yet announced their opposition to the Bill.
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