CHENNAI: Launching the UPA's Lok Sabha election campaign in the south, Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised 33% reservation for women in all government-sector jobs.

"It will be the first order that the Congress government will sign when it comes to power after the 2019 general elections," Gandhi said at a public meeting on Wednesday in Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district as DMK leader M K Stalin and other allies looked on. He also promised to implement the long-pending women's quota bill.

Upbeat about having sewed up electoral alliances in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Rahul said talks in J&K were in the final stages. "It is only the BJP that doesn't have an alliance," he said, adding that the Congress-led UPA will win the Lok Sabha battle and the new government would investigate the corruption in the purchase of Rafale fighter planes.

Rahul first made the promise of 33% reservation in government jobs for women in the morning, when he addressed students of Stella Maris College for Women in Chennai. He reiterated it when he addressed a media conference later in the city. "We will not only pass the bill for 33% reservation for women in parliament, but will implement it in LS, RS and state legislatures," Rahul said.

