BJD delegations to meet national, regional parties to garner support for 33% reservation for women

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to garner support for 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures, Odisha’s ruling BJD leaders will meet seven national parties and 15 regional parties of the country.

A decision to this was made this evening in a meeting held under the chairmanship of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas here, informed party vice president, Debi Mishra.

As per the press note released in this regard, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Ananta Das, and Arabinda Dhal will meet the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

While, Sashi Bhusan Behera, AU Singh Deo and Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh will meet the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Prasanna Kuma Acharya, Bed Prakash Agarwal, Bhartruhari Mahatab and Sarojini Hembram will meet the Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP).

Similarly, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Kulamani Samal, and Rita Tarai will meet both the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India Marxist CPI (M).

This apart, Tathagata Satpathy, Bed Prakash Agarwal, Pinaki Mishra and Prasanna Kumar Patasani will meet the Indian National Congress (INC), while Badri Narayan Patra, Arup Patnaik, and Sakuntala Laguri will meet the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The press note also mentioned the names of the party leaders in the proposed delegation to regional parties.

Surya Narayan Patro, Anubhab Mohanty, Prabhas Singh will meet the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), while, Debi Prasad Mishra and Sidhant Mohapatra will meet the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Kishore Kumar Mohanty and Jogendra Tripathy will meet the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) whereas, Nagendra Pradhan and Rabindra Kumar Jena will meet Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)).

Similarly, Pinaki Mishra and Ladu Kishore Swain will meet both the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Besides this, Anubhab Mohanty, Jhina Hikaka, Bimbadhar Kuanr will meet the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and Prasanna Acharya and Sarojini Hembram will meet the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

While Tathagata Satapathy and Surjya Narayan Patro will meet the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Arup Patnaik and Balabhadra  Majhi will meet the Shiv Sena (SS).

A delegation of Bhartruhari Mahatab and Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh will also meet the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Moreover, Soumya Rajan Patnaik and N Bhaskar Rao will meet both the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).

The BJD delegations will meet the parties at national and regional levels by December 11. They will submit a memorandum to them for supporting the motion for 33 per cent reservation for woman in the Parliament and State Assembly, sources said.

Notably, the Odisha CM on Tuesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate the move to ensure one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

The winter session of the state assembly has adopted a unanimous resolution to provide for one-third reservation to women in Parliament as well as the state legislatures.

In 2011, the Odisha government enhanced the reservation for women in Panchayats and urban local bodies to 50 per cent.

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