BJP chief whip spills it out: 70% of MPs oppose Women’s Bill

“At least seventy per cent of MPs are protesting against the women’s reservation Bill and the way the party supported the Bill despite marshals being used in Rajya Sabha. Top leaders of the party have assured that grievances of the MPs will be taken into account,” Bais told The Indian Express,adding that Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha had already held the first round of discussions.

Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav,senior leader and BJP MP from Madhubani in Bihar,declared he would defy any party whip in Lok Sabha and vote against the Bill.

A former Union Minister,Yadav told The Indian Express: “If they issue a whip (to vote in favour of the Bill),I will break it and vote against it. Let them end my membership,I am not bothered. I am a socialist and I cannot compromise on issues of social justice.”

He said he had asked the BJP leadership not to issue a whip in Lok Sabha and allow MPs to exercise their choice. He also slammed the use of marshals in Rajya Sabha to evict seven MPs who were opposed to the Bill.

Yadav said the use of marshals amounted to “martial law” and his party had been a “mute spectator”.

“History will not spare the BJP. The BJP was like Bhishmapitamah and Dronacharya in Mahabharata who remained mute spectators to the disrobing of Draupadi,” he said. Attacking the policy of his party to support the Bill,he said the BJP would “decline further” if it ignored the backward classes.

Yogi Adityanath,MP from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh,too aired his protest,wondering why the party had shown such eagerness to back the women’s reservation Bill when there were more pressing matters on hand.

Madhusudan Yadav,a first-time BJP MP from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh,too objected that the party leadership had not protested the use of marshals to evict MPs from Rajya Sabha.

“The allies and supporters of UPA are protesting against the Bill. They used the support of the Opposition to use marshals and bulldoze the Bill through Rajya Sabha. We will not tolerate the use of marshals in Lok Sabha,” Yadav told The Indian Express.