UP polls: EC rejects Congress' ad on sub-quota for minorities

 The Congress' bid to woo Muslims in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh suffered yet another setback with the Election Commission's state-level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee rejecting its advertisement on sub-quota for minorities.

Sources say the Congress party had sought the Election Commission's approval for its advertisement campaigns on minority sub-quota and MNREGA especially designed for Uttar Pradesh, but the same were referred to the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) empowered to take a decision on the matter.

After examining the Congress ad-campaign on sub-quota for minorities, the Committee did not clear the same even as it cleared the advertisement on MNREGA.

Confirming this, a top EC official in Uttar Pradesh said the MNREGA ad campaign has been cleared by the Committee.

The Congress party in Uttar Pradesh had submitted an audio advertisement each on MNREGA and minorities sub-quota, together with a video advert highlighting the grant of sub- quota to minorities.

After its disapproval from the Media Committee, the party is now bringing changes in the sub-quota advertisement and launch the same ahead of the seven-phase UP Assembly polls starting on February 8.

Earlier, the EC had asked the Congress-led UPA government to put on hold sub-quota for Muslims till the elections are over in the five states

Law minister Salman Khurshid also got embroiled in a controversy over the issue after he promised to double the sub-quota for minorities while campaigning for his wife in Farrukhabad earlier last month.

The party is, however, set to woo the Muslim community and its star campaigners are already claiming to have fulfilled their promise of granting a sub-quota for minorities.