BJP for over 33% reservation for women at panchayat level in J&K

JAMMU: BJP Mahila Morcha chief Vijaya Rahatkar said on Tuesday her party supports women empowerment and it would try to give them “more than” the 33 per cent reservation currently allowed at the panchayat level in Jammu and Kashmir.

Rahatkar said the BJP is the only party in India which is giving women their “due share”.

“We have highest women members in Parliament and civic bodies. We have 33 per cent reservation for women in panchayat polls here but we will try to give more than that as we are doing across the country,” she said.

Some states, including Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, already follow 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayat.

Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled to be held between November 8 and December 4. They have not been held in the state since 2011. Urban bodies polls are set to be held between October 1 and October 5.

The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party have announced they will boycott the polls until the central government, of the BJP, clarifies its position on the legal challenge to the Constitution’s Article 35A, which gives special rights and privileges to the residents of the state, in the Supreme Court. Rahatkar, who is in Jammu on a two-day visit, has had door-to-door interactions with women beneficiaries of central government-sponsored schemes.