BJP seeks Khurshid's immediate dismissal as EC writes to Prez

 With Election Commission seeking President Pratibha Patil's intervention on Law Minister Salman Khurshid's defiance of poll body's censure of his sub-quota remarks, BJP today sought his immediate dismissal from the cabinet.

"We demand his immediate sacking from the Union Cabinet and ask the Prime Minister to clarify the stand of the government," said BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who had earlier complained to the EC against Khurshid's defiance despite his censure by the poll body.

"Today, an extra-ordinary situation has arisen. There is a serious conflict between two constitutional authorites because of the action of some ministers of the Union cabinet," said Naqvi.

The BJP leader said the President of India and the Prime Minister should immediately intervene "in this extra-ordinary situation as this is the first time such a situation has arisen in the history of democractic India."

He said the Law Minister had challenged the EC's earlier order and said that "religion-based unconstitutional reservation will exist even if the EC exists or not".

Late tonight, the Election Commission, in an unprecedented action, sought the "immediate and decisive" intervention of President Pratibha Patil after it charged Khurshid with "improper and unlawful" defiance of its orders under which he was censured for promising sub-quota for minorities.