Twenty-eight women MLAs made their voices heard on Wednesday by raising slogans demanding 50 per cent quota for women in Parliament and Assemblies.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who started the day by congratulating women MLAs of Bihar on International Women's Day, had to later plead with them to allow the House to take up Question Hour. "Reservation in legislative bodies is for the Union government to take up," parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar said. "The women MLAs should approach BJP leaders from Bihar and ask them to take it up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

The "women's issue" cropped up during House proceedings. When JDU MLA Ranju Geeta demanded construction of two small bridges in her constituency in Sitamarhi, rural works minister Shailendra Kumar was reluctant to concede to the demands over lack of funds. "If you truly believe in Women's Day you would get both these bridges built," retorted Ranju. The Speaker told the minister that Ranju had shot her Brahmastra (most powerful weapon). "You should concede to her demands," the Speaker said. The minister agreed.

The number of women MLAs has dropped from a record-high of 34 in 2010 to 28 now. Of the 34 women MLAs in the earlier House, 33 were from the NDA, more than the strength of the then Opposition - RJD and LJP - which had 25 MLAs. The joke used to be that the NDA government would survive a no-confidence vote with just its women MLAs voting.

But the number dropped to 28 MLAs in 2015. The Grand Alliance has 23 women MLAs now. Both the NDA and the Grand Alliance fielded just 10 per cent of women candidates.

In the past, the Bihar Assembly has witnessed outstanding women MLAs who use to put their views forcefully. The late Bhagirathi Devi - an RJD MLA, who started her life as a stone-crusher - was one. There were others like Manju Prakash of the CPM, Sukhda Pandey of the BJP, Bhagwati Devi of the BJP (still an MLA) and a few others.

But primarily, women MLAs live under the shadows of their husbands, who cannot contest for some reason. RJD MLA Kunti Devi is an MLA because her husband is in jail convicted for murder.

"It is difficult to make space in politics independently," said a JDU woman MLA. To be fair, Nitish has given 50 per cent quota to women and local bodies, 35 per cent quota in government jobs. But he has faced stiff resistance within his party in supporting women's quota in legislative bodies, especially from the former party president Sharad Yadav.

"On paper it looks fine. But in reality it amounts to digging a pit in which you yourself might fall and may be denied ticket by the party because your seat gets reserved. Leaders of all political parties are reluctant to support the move," conceded a senior JDU minister.