BJP against caste reservations for socially deprived in Bihar: JD(U)

Patna: JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’ alleged that there is a BJP involvement in the submission of a petition in Patna High Court against the recent hike in quotas for socially deprived castes, PTI reports.

There were reports that a Public Interest Litigation was filed last week and it will come up for hearing in Patna HC shortly. Lalan was responding to the reports.

"It is all the BJP's doing. The party is anti-reservation. It had got its supporters to challenge quotas for extremely backward classes in local body polls. But the design was foiled and municipal elections were held with seats reserved for EBCs," he told reporters here on Monday.

"The BJP was again at work when attempts were made to derail the caste survey ordered by the Nitish Kumar government. When petitions filed by BJP supporters could not stand on merit, the Centre chipped in and the Solicitor General of India opposed the survey in the Supreme Court," he added.

The JD(U) top leader was confident that the HC would uphold the recently passed legislation raising the quantum of reserved seats to 75 per cent. This includes the 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections.

However, senior BJP leader and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the PIL was filed by the Mahagathbandhan government itself to defame his party. Modi also said OBC quotas were first introduced in Bihar in the 1970s, when "the Jan Sangh (BJP's predecessor) was sharing power and the Congress was in opposition"