Women's reservation bill a jumla, brought in with intention to befool women: AAP

New Delhi: The BJP-led Centre has brought in the women's reservation bill with the intention to befool women and has made sure with the riders of delimitation and population census that it will not be implemented before 2039, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, Singh said his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supports the bill but wants it to be implemented in the 2024 elections as well.

"All the promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have turned out to be jumla. Women's reservation bill is a jumla and has been brought in with the intention to befool women. We have been continuously saying it is 'mahila bewakoof banao bill'," he alleged.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Constitution amendment bill which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women in the Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday.

According to the bill, it will come into effect after the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies which will be carried out after the completion of the next population census.

Speaking on the bill, AAP MP Singh said, "There is a big question mark on when this will be implemented -- whether it will be implemented in 20 years or 25 years. In the women's reservation bill that was passed in 2010, there was no provision for census or delimitation and it simply said there will 33 per cent reservation." If the government's intention was clear, it would have passed the bill that was cleared by the Rajya Sabha in 2010, he said, adding, "What did they do? They prepared a jumla bill." Singh stressed that in the bill the government has said census and delimitation will happen but it did not give a time frame for the implementation.

"Delimitation will only happen after the Census. When will the Census happen? The Census will take place in 2031 and it will take two to three years, which means it will be completed by 2034. Then six to seven years will go in completing delimitation which means it won't be implemented before 2039," he claimed.

Singh called the Centre a "credit chor" government and said this is just an election gimmick.

"BJP has a mentality against women. They have always stood with people who have oppressed women. This is just a jumla," he said.

Singh was also asked about the decision of the INDIA alliance on voting for the bill.

"The members of INDIA alliance had a meeting this morning. We will decide and vote according to what is decided. We are in support of the women's reservation bill but in 2024," he said.

When asked about the fact that some INDIA alliance parties have supported the bill, he said all the partes are on the same page regarding the fact that this is an "election gimmick".