Seeking to reach out to women ahead of possible mid-term elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday endorsed 33 per cent reservation for women at all levels within the organisation with its national executive giving green signal to the "historic" measure.

"It's a historic day for the party. The national executive today endorsed 33 per cent reservation for women in all bodies of the party. It will now be ratified by the national council," senior party leader Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

The saffron party's move assumes significance in view of the passage of women's reservation bill being delayed in Parliament.

She said the deliberations saw senior leader Lal Kishenchand Advani favouring arrangements to ensure 33 per cent compulsory ticket reservation for women in every election by every party.

Taking a dig at the Congress and its leadership, Swaraj said that what was prevalent in the Congress was "fear" and not "reverence".

Incidently, BJP is the second major party after Congress to go in for such reservation.

Swaraj said there was a vicious campaign to dub BJP as "anti-women" and the facts are otherwise.

Replying to a question, she suggested that the party was not eyeing the return of Uma Bharati saying, "There was enough women leaders in the party and there was no need to call someone back into the fold."

The report submitted by Sushma Swaraj in the national executive on Saturday also comprised a comparison of the number of women ministers in the National Democratic Alliance and United Progressive Alliance regime.

"We had 11 women ministers in the NDA regime of which nine were from BJP. While in UPA there are only 10 ministers and only six are from Congress," she said.

"It was the NDA and the BJP which have given maximum reservation to women in the history of the country," she claimed flaying the Communist parties for "never having a women chief minister in its rule."

As per the new recommendation, the national executive will have 27 women members out of the total 81 of which two seats each have been reserved for women from SC and ST community.

The committee comprised BJP Mahila Morcha chief Kiran Maheshwari and leaders like Sumitra Mahajan, Najma Hepyullah, Bal Apte, Kiran Rijuju and Kishan Reddy.