New Delhi Barely two days after federal Law Minister Salman Khurshid regretted defying the Election Commission for violating the model code of conduct by promising enhanced quota in government jobs to Muslims, his ministerial colleague Beni Prasad Verma, the federal Minister for Steel, stoked the raging fire Thursday.
He promised enhanced quota to Muslims if the Congress party was voted to power in the state.
Addressing an election rally ahead of the fourth phase of polling slated for Sunday, Verma said Muslims of the state have not got their due under respective non-Congress party governments in the state.
"Muslims don't have their homes; they don't have jobs and 70 per cent of them work as labourers. Non-Congress governments in the state have not done anything for their betterment… We will make sure that quotas for them are increased if the Congress comes to power," he said.
Ready to reply
Verma was quoted by a television channel as saying that he was ready to reply to the Election Commission, if it served notice to him.
Verma found support from the national general secretary of the Congress party, Digvijay Singh, who is in-charge for Uttar Pradesh.
"There is nothing wrong in what he (Verma) has said as increasing quota for Muslims is part of the Congress manifesto…Talking about things in party's manifesto is not a violation of election model code of conduct," Singh defended Verma at a press conference he addressed in the state capital Lucknow Thursday.
