Can consider supporting Women Reservation Bill: Mulayam Singh Yadav

Samajwadi Party supremo, said his party could consider supporting Women Bill if Dalits, Muslims and backward class were also taken care of.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been opposing the long pending Women Reservation Bill, on Friday said his party could consider supporting it if Dalits, Muslims and backward class were also taken care of under its ambit.

"I have opposed the Bill earlier...It has been amended and if Dalits, Muslims and backward class are taken care of in it, we can consider supporting it," Yadav told reporters here on the sidelines of a function. "We always feel that men and women should work shoulder to shoulder but women are still suppressed in the society," he added. Yadav, yesterday at a meeting in Barabanki, had opposed the bill saying it will benefit only the affluent class and those belonging to weaker sections will be further suppressed. The Bill, proposing 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010. SP, RJD and JD(U) had opposed to the bill. Meanwhile, Yadav also said that he would discuss security arrangements at Indian borders with the Prime Minister during a meeting with him tonight, saying there was an increasing threat to the borders. "The borders of the country are unsafe and the threat is increasing. Neither the media nor the Centre were considering it seriously. I will talk about it to the Prime Minister and discuss it today" "Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had given statement about presence of Chinese army in Kashmir but media did not give importance to it", he said. Yadav is expected to meet PM Manmohan Singh at a dinner hosted by him in New Delhi. PTI