Summary:
It may be opposed to the Bill that reserves a third of the seats in Lok Sabha and state legislature for women, but the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is nevertheless planning to nominate women in around half of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. "We are planning to give priority to women in nominations and try to field at least 50% women candidates, instead of 33% (as envisaged in the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill)," said BSP Maharashtra unit chief Suresh Sakhare. He added that the BSP was planning to contest all 288 seats in the state and had begun interviews to select nominees. Sakhare claimed that the BSP would employ a 'social engineering' model in the Maharashtra polls by fielding candidates from communities which had a strong presence in those seats. During the Lok Sabha elections, like in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP had allied with the SP in Maharashtra..