India, April 19 -- PM Narendra Modi got a pointed response from CM Mamata Banerjee on Sunday after he took up the issue of women's reservation at the BJP's election rally in West Bengal and again claimed - as he did in his "address to the nation" the previous night - that the state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) had blocked in the Lok Sabha a bill for a 33% quota in Parliament and assemblies.

CM Mamata Banerjee stressed that the women's reservation as such not up for debate - that's already been passed with cross-party support in 2023.

"What we are fundamentally opposed to is the delimitation exercise [redrawing the country's electoral map] that the Modi Government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its veste...