Bhopal, Sept. 22: The BJP today said it would reserve 33 per cent seats for women at all levels of the party hierarchy.

The decision, clinched on the second day of the party’s three-day national executive here, came nearly eight years after the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress set aside one-third of seats in the party set-up for women.

Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani said the BJP would also reserve 33 per cent seats for women in Assembly and parliamentary elections provided a law made it mandatory for all parties.

As it flaunted its gender-sensitivity, the BJP took a swipe at the Left. “Till the last one year, their (the Left’s) politburo did not have any woman member. They have had governments in three states but are yet to choose a woman chief minister,” Sushma Swaraj said. “We have had three women chief ministers.”

The national executive today adopted a report by a six-member committee for increasing women’s representation in BJP bodies to 33 per cent. Sushma, who headed the panel, said till now, women’s representation in these bodies was between 12 and 15 per cent.

Sushma said the panel’s recommendations would be ratified and the party’s constitution amended at the next meeting of the national council.

According to the recommendations, 27 of the 81 national executive members will be women, including two each from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Sushma said her party has always favoured proper representation for women at all levels. “Amongst all the governments in India, the NDA cabinet led by A.B. Vajpayee had maximum representation of women. There were 11 of them, of which nine were from the BJP.”

“In the UPA,” she added, “there are only 10 women ministers and only six are from the Congress”.