'Catch me if you can': TMC leader dares BJP to raise women's quota to 40 pc

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress member Kakoli Ghosh-Dastidar on Wednesday invoked famous song 'catch me if you can' dedicated to legendary boxer Muhammad Ali to dare the BJP to match the 40 per cent reservation for women already implemented by her party for Lok Sabha elections.

"Catch me if you can, all of the political parties here, catch Mamata Banerjee and AITC (All India Trinamool Congress) and make it 40 per cent and not 33 per cent," she said, while participating in the discussion on the women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha. Ghosh-Dastidar said she was referring to the popular song dedicated to legendary boxer Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

She was referring to TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee putting up 40 per cent women candidates in the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state during the 2019 general elections. Ghosh-Dastidar said even in the West Bengal government, Banerjee has allocated important portfolios such as health, law, women's empowerment and industry that were held by women legislators. "We in Trinamool Congress get that much respect for being here (in the Lok Sabha) in great numbers," she said. The NDA government on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving a bill pending for 27 years for want of consensus among parties. The Trinamool leader also quoted poems by Kazi Nazrul Islam and Rabindranath Tagore.