"Historical decision": Ramdas Athawale lauds PM Modi for Women's Quota Bill

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Maharashtra) [India], September 24 (ANI): Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the passage of Women's Quota Bill calling it a 'historical decision'. 
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a historical decision. 33pc of the women from across the nation will now come to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as 'lawmakers'. It is a revoltutionary step. All the other parties have supported us", Athawale told reporters in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. 
The Women's Quota Bill, cleared its final legislative hurdle at the Rajya Sabha on Thursday with 214 members voting in support and none against.
Earlier on Wednesday, the bill was shown the green flag by the Lok Sabha with the brute majority of 454 votes in favour and just 2 against.
The Rajya Sabha had earlier passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2010 during the Congress-led UPA government but it was not taken up in the Lok Sabha and subsequently lapsed in the lower House of Parliament.
In 1996, under the United Front Government (an alliance of 13 political parties) headed by then Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, the bill was brought but it faced opposition from the alliance parties due to the latter's demand to take into account the OBCs.
Since then, the bill had been in limbo for 27 years.
Meanwhile, taking a dig at the Congress, Athawale said, "Rahul Gandhiji says that the bill should account for OBCs too. Why didn't you do it then while you were in power?"
Attacking the INDIA bloc, which is an alliance of 28 political parties formed to take on the BJP in 2024 general elections, the Union Minister said, "They are gathering to defeat Modiji. In 1975 when there was an emergency, Indira Gandhi (former PM) put all the leaders behind the bars now they are standing with the Congress today". 
"Modiji is doing such a good work for the countries. No matter what the opposition does, the public is with us. We will surely win over 300 seats in the upcoming general assembly polls", he further claimed. 
Meanwhile, before the general assembly polls, the elections are scheduled to be held in five states this year, including, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram for which, the parties are leaving no stone unturned in wooing voters. 
Prime Minister Modi is all set to arrive in the Dadiya village of Rajasthan's Jaipur to culminate the party's Parivartan Sankalp Yatra, which covered 200 constituencies in the state, thus reaching out to over one crore people, with the BJP aiming to achieve the maximum number of seats in the state assembly polls. 
Earlier on Saturday, Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Rahul Gandhi arived in Jaipur and addressed the public gathering. 
Gandhi hailed the Rajasthan government's efforts in providing accessible healthcare services.
"I went to talk to porters in Delhi. They had seen a video of mine and called me for a talk. They told me how the Rajasthan government saved their lives by providing accessible healthcare services. In Rajasthan, we opened 3,600 English medium schools, we provided healthcare services. We provided domestic gas cylinders at Rs 500," he said. (ANI)