The UPA has 274 MPs, BJP has 116 and the Left, 24. All of them support the quota Bill.

The current strength of the Upper House is 229 with 16 vacancies.

The UPA and formations supporting the Bill add up to 156; sufficient to get the Bill through.

When the vacant seats are filled, the picture for the Bill backers is only likely to brighten.

Importantly, after their lacklustre electoral performance, antiquota forces such as the Samajwadi Party ( SP), the Janata Dal- United ( JD- U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD) might no longer be as shrill in their opposition to the Bill.

With the arithmetic clearly in UPA's favour law minister Veerappa Moily made it clear that the Bill was top on the government's must- do list. " As far as our party and government are concerned, we would like to ensure that it ( the Bill) comes early... it's top on our agenda. It is now for the Business Advisory Committee ( BAC) to decide," Moily said.

Congress insiders said the party would take up the matter with other major parties and, if a consensus is reached, the BAC might slot a date for discussion during the Budget session.

Meanwhile, the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday is likely to talk of women empowerment.

Downplaying resistance, Moily said: " Many discussions have gone into this. The idea is to turn it into reality, taking the House into confidence." In fact, the party document's assertion on the Bill was pretty definite. " The Indian National Congress will ensure that the Bill for reserving 33 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures is passed in the 15th Lok Sabha and that the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha are held on the basis of one- third reservation for women." Hours after she took the Lok Sabha high chair, Meira Kumar too hoped that a consensus would be arrived at and the Bill passed.

" We are starting afresh. I sincerely hope all parties will back it." Echoing Moily and Kumar, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said the party is " committed to the legislation as originally envisaged. We have made it clear in our manifesto that the passage of the Bill remains Congress' steadfast commitment. We will pursue it with all diligence and ensure that it is passed soon in both Houses of Parliament." Opposition to the Bill was so shrill that over decade ago when the Gujral government tried to introduce it in the Lok Sabha, Sharad Yadav had made a controversial comment couched in a " class" slant. He had said the proposed law would benefit " par kati mahilayen " ( women with bobbed hair). The Bill was aborted.

Last year again, when the Congress president made an attempt to get the legislation passed, some OBC leaders had suggested that they would back it if the quota was limited to 15- 20 per cent.

These OBC leaders are wary that the reservation, if implemented, would hit their electoral prospects.

Upper- caste dominated parties such as the Congress and the BJP, they believe, have more educated and upwardly mobile women whose chances of winning are brighter than OBC and Muslim women.

A leader close to Sharad Yadav said OBC parties might not find " political" and " articulate" women to take the plunge. " We do not have a Brinda Karat or a Sushma Swaraj," a JD- U leader said.

" All the three top Yadav leaders and Ram Vilas Paswan, are firstgeneration leaders. It will take a couple of more generations for us to produce a good number of potential woman candidates," an RJD Lok Sabha member added.

" If a sub- quota for OBC and minority women is created within the 33 per cent, then we would be in a position to face the challenge posed by upper caste parties," he said, adding that in the present form, the Bill was against the

RJD's principle of social justice.

On a day the country got its first woman Speaker, even parties such as Shiv Sena, stridently opposed to the women's quota Bill, lowered their pitch. Party leader Chandrakant Khaire said though the Sena would not oppose the legislation, " we are of the view that parties should give 33 per cent tickets to woman nominees instead of Parliament enacting a law." The CPM's Basudeb Acharia hoped the long pending legislation would soon be passed.

A proposal to address this problem was to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats by a third to accommodate women without the men losing their seats. But analysts say this proposal is fraught with logistical problems.

It would mean that the Lok Sabha, which has a seating capacity of only 544, will have to find space for roughly 722. The Lower House then will have to either shift to the Central Hall or the new Library complex. " Our party would favour an increase in the total seats by one- third to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women," a Samajwadi Party leader said.