Minority reservation row: BJP accuses Congress of playing communal based politics

Chandigarh, Jan 15 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here today accused the Congress Party of indulging in communal based politics to gain votes in poll bound Uttar Pradesh.

While addressing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that the religion-based reservation is unconstitutional.

"Congress Party has crossed its limits by doing communal based politics in order to grab votes. It is known that a religion based reservation is not permissible under the Indian constitution," said Prasad.

Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid had recently promised to raise the minority reservation from 4.5 percent to nine percent within the existing 27 percent Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quota, if the Congress party came to power in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The proposal to increase the Muslim reservation has faced flak from the BJP, which accused the Congress of trying to split the nation on religious grounds.

Prasad further slammed Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and party chief Sonia Gandhi for not sacking their party's general secretary Digvijay Singh for calling 2008 Batla House encounter as 'fake', despite Union Home Minister P Chidambaram called the shootout as 'genuine'. (ANI)