Beni dares EC, says quota for Muslims will be hiked

After Salman Khurshid, Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma dared the Election Commission to take action against him when he declared that quota for Muslims would be increased.

"Reservation for Muslims will be increased and if the EC wants, it can now issue notice to me," Verma said while addressing a rally at Kaimganj last night in the presence of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and Union Law Minister Khurshid.

The minister said Khurshid was "honestly fighting for the Muslims".

Referring to the row between EC and Khurshid, Beni said that if Congress comes to power, then they would work for more reservation.

Khurshid had last week triggered a controversy by stating that he would continue to speak on nine per cent sub-quota for minorities even if the Election Commission "hangs me".

The EC had yesterday put a lid on the standoff with Khurshid after he expressed regrets over his "defiance" of the poll body over his remarks on subquota for minorities.

During a separate election meeting organised in the city, Khurshid, while campaigning in support of his wife and Congress candidate Louis Khurshid, said that when he said the same thing in Parliament (on quota) nobody said anything and when he repeated it in Farukkhabad, hullabaloo was created.

He said besides reservation, there were number of others laws which would benefit the poor, farmers and workers.

The minister promised higher compensation for farmers whose land would be acquired.

Apparently referring to BJP leader Arun Jaitely, Khurshid said that when he talks about Muslims, the BJP leader says that he talks about only one community. "I want to ask why he is opposed to one community".