RJD issues whip on Women's Reservation Bill

The Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), which opposes the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form, has issued a whip to its members asking them to register their protest tomorrow when the bill is scheduled to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

"RJD has issued a whip asking its members to protest the Bill in its present form," senior party leader and former union minister Prem Chand Gupta told PTI today. The party has four members each in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

The Lalu Prasad-led RJD and Samajwadi Party are opposing the bill in its present form, demanding quota-within-quota for OBC women.

He said if BJP and Congress think they have support for the bill, they should allow their party members to vote according to their conscience on it and then see what real support exists for the bill.

He also said the Congress "by ignoring old friends" is pushing for the Bill with the support of the BJP, which will not prove good for the party in the long run. "They (Congress) should have first tried to build a consensus on the Bill and not gone for it with rigidity," he added.

The RJD, which is supporting the government from outside has earlier been part of the UPA I government. However, its alliance with the Congress had broken up before the Lok Sabha elections 2009 over the issue of seat sharing in Bihar. After the elections, it extended outside support to the government.