New Delhi, March 10: With the Rajya Sabha, despite their opposition, voting in favour of Women’s Reservation Bill, Lalu and Mulayam planned to bring in a no-confidence in the Lok Sabha but have backed off on Wednesday citing ‘lack of numbers’.
The Yadavs are fuming over the way in which the bill won the vote in the upper house despite their vociferous protests and are also peeved over the suspension of their MPs from the Rajya Sabha.
After announcing the withdrawal of support to the government, the Yadav duo also announced that they would bring in a no-confidence motion the Lok Sabha but have since abandoned the plan citing lack of support.
As per the Constitution, atleast 50 MPs need to sign the notice to move the no-confidence motion for Speaker Meira Kumar to accept it.
And, they don’t have the numbers, nor do they have support of any other party on the issue.
“No question of bringing forth a no-confidence motion against the government as we don’t have the required numbers,” said Lalu said today.
“We have only four MPs, no-confidence can only be brought by big parties,” a clearly annoyed Lalu said.
The fact remains that the no-confidence motion was a non-starter as most of the opposition parties, especially the BJP and the Left had voted in favour of the bill and hence they cannot oppose the government over the issue.
According to BJP insiders, the party thinks that it would be too early to bring a no-confidence motion against the UPA govt.
Political observers also opine that BJP will not support the Yadavs on the issue as it is aware of the political benefits they will reap if they succeed in bringing down the ruling coalition led by the Congress party.
The Yadavs, also reportedly, contacted Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Janata Dal (Secular), Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, but got a negative response.
Interestingly, Mulayam and Lalu had also announced that they have withdrawn support to the UPA and will hand over the letters withdrawing support to the President today.
They now claim that they are yet to get time from the President and will submit the letters if and when they get time.
But the battle hardened political bigwigs are unlikely to go down without a fight.
“It is not about who is in majority. The government has acted in a stubborn manner. Samajwadi party has always supported reservation for women but we wanted a quota within the quota,” said Mulayam Singh Yadav was quoted as saying.
The two parties have pledged to continue their tirade against the UPA government over issues like price rise and cheating Muslims women, those who fall in SC and ST category and women living in tribal regions.
The two parties have also threatened to launch a nationwide agitation against what they perceive as Congress party’s autocratic rule.
Both RJD and Samajwadi Party have been opposing the 108th Constitution Amendment Bill (Women’s Reservation Bill) in its present form which seeks to reserve 33 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies for women. They are pitching for a quota within the quota for women from OBC, Dalit and minority community.
If the Bill is passed by the Lok Sabha and at least 50 per cent of the states then 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 state assemblies will be reserved for the women.
The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday evening passed the Bill with 186 votes in favour and one against.
-Agencies