The Telangana IT minister and BRS working president, KT Rama Rao, said he would be happy to give up his MLA seat for the cause of women’s reservation. The BRS had wholeheartedly welcomed the Women’s Reservation Bill tabled in Parliament, on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, speaking at the launch of a newly redeveloped International Tech Park at Madhapur, which is at the heart of the city’s IT corridor, Rao addressed Jessica Tan Soon Neo, the deputy speaker of the Singaporean parliament. She informed her that India’s Parliament was debating the Women’s Reservation Bill and referred to it as an “important milestone”.
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“We wholeheartedly support [the bill] and we want to see more and more women leaders … and if I have to lose my seat for that so be it,” he said. On hearing this, some of his supporters in the audience protested, but he said, “We all have a limited shelf life, which is fine. I have done my thing.”
While some of the opposition parties have criticized the Centre for delaying women’s reservation until the next census and delimitation, the BRS has welcomed it with KT Rama Rao saying that on certain occasions, people must rise above politics and stand together in the larger interest of the country.
While BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha had been very vocal on the demand for women’s reservation, the Telangana chief minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, had even written a letter to the prime minister, Narendra Modi, demanding that the bill should be passed during the special session of Parliament. Rao had in the past floated the idea to implement reservation for women after increasing the total number of seats through delimitation so that the status quo of the existing seats remain unaffected.
Meanwhile YSR Telangana Party leader K Sharmila assailed KT Rama Rao for his comment and demanded that the BRS implements 33 per cent reservation immediately giving its seats to more women candidates. Incidentally, the BRS gave tickets to only 7 women out of the 115 constituencies where they have announced candidates for the upcoming assembly election.
