TMC abstains from voting on Women's Bill

New Delhi, 09 Mar: Accusing the government of trying to bulldoze the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, UPA ally Trinamool Congress abstained from voting, stating that it was not intimated about it.

Union Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi and Trinamool's Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay told reporters outside Parliament earlier, that the two members from their party were not present in the Rajya Sabha as they had no idea that the Bill would come up for voting today.

"The way the Women's Reservation Bill was brought up for voting in the Rajya Sabha today, we are shocked to see the procedure adopted on the floor of the House", Bandopadhyay said here.

"We don't want to see that the parliamentary democracy is being more or less bulldozed. We are opposed to the manner in which the Bill was taken up for voting. Any forcible attempt to get the Bill passed cannot be supported", he said referring to the use of marshals to evict members opposed to the Bill in its present form.

Making it clear that Trinamool Congress, the second largest party in UPA, was not opposed to the bill, Trivedi said the party had conveyed to the government that it was "opposed to any kind of force" because in democracy "consensus and discussion" were important.

"Our party members in the Rajya Sabha were not intimated about the voting. No discussion took place with Trinamool Congress about voting," he added.


(PTI)