Click to play videoNew Delhi: There is a new race in UP polls with the Congress trying to outbid the Samajwadi Party for the 18 per cent Muslim vote by promising more quotas.
The Election Commission has now issued a notice to Salman Khurshid, who is the Minorities Affairs Minister, and also the country's Law Minister for promises he made on the campaign trail in his wife's constituency.
His impassioned speech while campaigning for his wife in Farookabad has landed Salman Khurshid in trouble with the Election Commission.
He has promised a 9 per cent sub quota for backward Muslims in UP, a move which has angered the BJP. It even went to the EC accusing Khurshid of violating election code of conduct.
The Election Commission has now shot of a notice to Salman's wife, Louis Khurshid, asking for an explanation but the Congress isn't unduly worried.
Salman Khurshid said, "We have provisions in our system for reservation for backward Muslims on recommendations of Sachhar panel."
Barely had Salman Khurshid dropped the 9 per cent bomb, Rahul Gandhi challenged Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to promise 18 per cent Muslim reservations in his manifesto.
Congress's googly has made things difficult for the SP which looks at itself as the real champion of minorities. It pits Mulayam's two core constituencies, the Muslims and the Yadavs directly against each other.
The BSP too doesn't know how to react as its eager to maintain it's 'dalit plus' character since 2007.
But there could be a bigger headache coming for Mayawati. The Congress is planning to bowl another quota googly splitting the monolithic schedule caste grouping into dalits and maha dalits. A move that will find favour with backward dalits and possibly blunt the BSP chief's community mobilization.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
