10% quota will help NDA in the upcoming LS polls: Paswan

NEW DELHI: Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday said the decision to provide 10 per cent reservation in jobs and education to upper castes will help the NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Paswan told the media that providing quota to the Economically Weaker Sections in general category from the upper castes was “a historic step” by PM Modi.

“It is true that we were a bit shaky following BJP’s defeat in the recent Assembly polls but PM Modi trumped the Opposition with the 10 per cent quota move. We appear to have arrested the drift now,” Paswan told the Sunday Express.

“People are happy because of the quota. If people are happy, there will be (electoral) benefit,” he said.

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Paswan said the Supreme Court had struck down a similar move in 1990s by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government saying there was no provision for reservation on economic status and asked for Constitutional amendments.

Paswan said, “The NDA government incorporated 25 new sections in the Act bringing in change for the first time since it was passed in 1989… The government carried out several development measures and took strong decisions such as demonetisation and has to take some popular ones in an election year.”

“Now, there has been an Constitutional amendment. I do not think the Supreme Court will object to it,” he said.

With agency inputs