LUCKNOW: The BJP would not tolerate religion-based reservation in the country which was totally illegal and unconstitutional and would soon launch an agitation for a nationwide awakening, warned party national president Nitin Gadkari while addressing a press conference in a city hotel on Tuesday.
On January 23, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the BJP will burn the copies of the government order of reservation to the minorities, mainly the Muslims, in jobs and educational institutions all over the country to mark its protest.
This was announced by party’s state president Surya Pratap Shahi. Gadkari feared that if the orders for the religion-based reservations were not withdrawn it would recreate a partition-like situation and cause communal riots in the country. He said the Congress and the SP were fooling the electorate by promising reservation to the Muslims and the BSP was maintaining a studied silence over this issue for the vote bank politics.
Gadkari indicated that in the February elections, the BJP would try to distance the backward community from the Congress by telling them that the Congress had stolen 4.5 per cent share from their quota and given it to the Muslims. The BJP, which is confident that the upper caste votes would bounce to its kitty from the ruling BSP after the failure of its much-hyped social engineering, is trying to woo the OBCs on the Muslim reservation issue. The party has also taken the risk of inducting BSP discard and NRHM scandal tainted Babu Singh Kushwaha in its fold, though officially the party has put on hold his membership.
However, Kushwaha is campaigning for the BJP and seeking votes of his castemen. In a reply to a question on Kushwaha, Gadkari said the BJP would not defend the corrupt and criminals if they were convicted. Later, Shahi told the mediapersons that the party had aligned with a smaller political outfit, Janwadi Party, and had given four seats to it in Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur districts. He said that the party would take out a padyatra in 403 constituencies to create ‘awakening’ against corruption of Mayawati regime in the state.