NEW DELHI: After a day of high drama that saw the Rajya Sabha swarm with more than a hundred marshals in blue dresses called in to bundle out seven MPs blocking proceedings, the House recorded a historic vote in favour of a bill providing for 33% reservation for women in Parliament and assemblies.

The legislation is likely to be brought to the Lok Sabha after the vote-on-account has been passed, with the Congress leadership showing that it was not deterred by the bigger strength of the quota opponents in the lower House. It has to be brought to the LS as a logical corollary, said Sonia Gan-dhi although she refused to get into the specifics of the likely time-table.

The vote had been vehemently stalled by anti-women's quota protesters in the RS throughout Monday while the government calculated the political fallout of all-out hostilities with SP and RJD leaders Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad. While the government dithered, a handful of dissenters held the House to ransom.

On Tuesday morning, the mood was different. Armed with Sonia's directions, the government was ready to seek suspension of the dissenting MPs. After a four-hour debate in the afternoon, the House scored a thumping 186 votes with just one MP, Sharad Joshi of the Swatantra Paksh Party, voting against the bill.

Before the discussion which saw MPs rising to the occasion with only a few partisan jabs, the government prepared for the day on a war footing after having cut an indecisive figure on Monday.

The mood was set at the Congress core group's meeting after the RS concluded its disrupted proceedings where Sonia made it clear that the women's bill could not be abandoned. Government managers had been restrained against the protesters due to concern over the political fallout of snapping ties with SP and RJD chiefs Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad and the resultant reduction in the buffer of 320-plus MPs that UPA enjoyed in Lok Sabha.

SP would have to take on Congress for Muslim vote

This would be sharply whittled while the say of allies — whom Congress had managed well so far — would increase.

But the Congress leadership kept in mind what it saw was an inevitable drift of SP and RJD away from Congress, given their competing political interests. SP would have to take on Congress for the Muslim vote in UP and in Bihar Sonia's party was determined to carve an identity quite separate from Lalu. If floor management became difficult after the women's bill, it was inevitable.

The Congress core group took stock at PM Manmohan Singh's office around 1 pm after the government managers already set their strategy in motion. Once again, Sonia's view that the party and government could not back off was clear.

Indeed, doing so would have severely hurt the government's esteem and raised the morale of the anti-quota brigade sky high. It would have laid the government open to a savaging from BJP and Left. After getting the bill through Rajya Sabha, government sources are careful of when it will be moved to Lok Sabha where an even sterner test awaits it. The government had to deal with just about 8-10 dissenters in Rajya Sabha but in Lok Sabha, Mulayam and Lalu can be expected to lead the opposition. Though the bill's passage is a blow to the two Yadav leaders, the possibility of having to marshal out 30-40 MPs is not easy to contemplate.

In keeping with its priorities, the government is moving a discussion on the general budget in Lok Sabha on Wednesday itself.

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