By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress Friday told the Election Commission that party leader Salman Khurshid did not violate the model code of conduct by promising nine percent reservation to minorities if the Congress is voted to power in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters after a meeting with the poll panel that the promise of quota for minorities had been made in the party’s election manifesto for 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Khurshid has also defended his remarks.
Singhvi said Khurshid had not referred to any particular community and had only reiterated a pre-declared government policy.
The Election Commission had issued a showcause notice to Khurshid after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protested his remark at an election rally that the Congress will provide nine percent reservation to minorities from the existing 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) if voted to power in Uttar Pradesh.
Khurshid made the remark at a rally at Farrukhabad where his wife Louise is in the fray for the assembly polls.
Singhvi said Khurshid was not speaking as a union minister but as a Congressman and had no intention of violating the model code of conduct.
The Congress spokesman said that “declaration of inclusionary kind” regarding minorities had been made in the Congress manifestos for Uttar Pradesh elections and in 2009 for the Lok Sabha elections.
Singhvi hoped proceedings in the case “can be dropped at some stage.”