Hyderabad: Only seven women figured in the list of 115 BRS candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections that was released by party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao here on Monday.
At a time, when MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha held a dharna in Delhi and participated in a round table meeting with political parties and women organisations in Delhi recently demanded the Centre to pass the women's reservations bill that provides 33% quota for women in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies, Kavitha’s own party, the ruling BRS, gave tickets to just eight women. This has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters.
When media persons asked Rao about this, he said, "The absence of a women's reservation Act is the reason for this. If the Act is passed, all parties will be mandated to give 33 per cent quota to women in legislature bodies. But the bill is still pending in the parliament. Going by the present circumstances, we gave tickets to women. But the BRS stand is very clear-the women’s reservation bill should be enacted and we will continue to work toward realising this."
