Shiv Sena (UBT) member Arvind Sawant on Wednesday alleged in Lok Sabha that bringing the women's reservation bill is a politically motivated move by the Modi government to hide its "failure" on various fronts like unemployment and price rise.

Participating in a discussion on the women's reservation bill, Sawant, a member of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, also expressed apprehension that the reservation may go beyond 33 per cent because of the rotation of seats proposed in the bill.

He said if an elected woman member does well and is given a ticket on the same seat again by her party, the reservation would effectively go beyond 33 per cent.

Observing that no tears were shed when women wrestlers were protesting, Sawant said, "This bill is wholly political, has been brought with elections in mind".

He said that this is a "new attempt" to hide the "failures" of the government with respect to issues concerning farmers, unemployment situation, atrocities against women and price rise.

N K Premachandran (RSP) wondered why the government has called a special session for the bill when the provisions are to be implemented later.

He wanted to know why the Modi government did not come up with the women's reservation bill in the past nine-and-a-half years of its rule.

Navneet Rana (Independent) said that the earlier governments used women's issues to get votes and never thought about their rights. She applauded the Modi government for coming up with the bill to give rights to women.

Agatha Sangma (NPP) said that the government should ensure the implementation of the bill and make provisions to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in Rajya Sabha also.

Girish Chandra (BSP) demanded that there should also be a provision for SC/ST quota in the women's reservation bill.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.