Raipur, Jul 30 (PTI) A private member's bill moved by a BJP MLA seeking prohibition of religious conversion through allurement or fraud was not allowed to be tabled in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Friday following a division of votes.

While 13 out of 90 MLAs supported the tabling of the "Chhattisgarh Vidhi Viruddh Dharm Samparivartan Pratishedh Vidheyak, 2021' moved by former minister Brijmohan Agrawal, 54 legislators opposed it. The rest abstained or were not present.

The Speaker then disallowed its tabling.

Agrawal said the bill aimed to protect young women who were being `lured and tricked' into marriages with the aim of forced conversion. Many such victims were unceremoniously divorced later, he claimed.

This led to friction between communities as well as created law and order issues, and the bill will "secure the future of our girls", the BJP legislator claimed.

BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh as well as Uttar Pradesh have enacted laws against fraudulent conversion through marriage.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)