New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will most likely be the lead speaker of Congress for the debate on Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, said sources.

Congress party is currently locked in a fierce war of words with the ruling BJP

The Congress party is currently locked in a fierce war of words with the ruling BJP over credit for bringing the bill on women’s reservation in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. The Women’s

Reservation Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, sparked outrage in the Opposition ranks. The Congress dubbed it as an “election jumla” and flagged the need to publish the 2021 census before the Lok Sabha elections. Party leaders asserted that it would take several years for the reservation to come into effect even as LoP Malliarjun Kharge noted that a similar bill had come close to passing in 2010.

“What about it? It’s ours. Apna hain,” Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday.

She made these remarks while entering the Parliament for a historic joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as both houses convene their first session in the newly inaugurated Parliament building.

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “We want the Women’s Reservation Bill to be brought and passed as soon as possible. The demand for the Women’s Reservation Bill was initiated by UPA and our leader Sonia Gandhi. It took so long, but we will be happy if this is introduced.”