PTI NEW DELHI THE Election Commission on Tuesday issued a notice to Louise Khurshid, the Congress candidate in Farrukhabad constituency and wife of law minister Salman Khurshid, for an election speech in which the minister promised 9 percent quota to Muslims within OBC reservation in UP.

Khurshid defended his announcement, and said the government was working according to the “set-up in the country”.

“The government has worked according to the set-up in the country that provides 27 percent reservation for people belonging to backward classes of all religions,” Khurshid told reporters in Lucknow.

He was reacting to the BJP complaint to the Election Commission that the announcement violated the code of conduct and was an attempt to woo voters in the state.

“This very set-up on the recommendation of the Sachar Committee has been implemented in all central government jobs,” said Khurshid.

The Congress called Khurshid’s announcement “right” and justified.

“What Salman Khurshid has said is right. The party could increase the sub quota for backward Muslims within the existing OBC quota in UP in the event of its forming the government in the state,” party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said.

The Congress spokesperson’s statement is indicative of the party’s plans to woo Muslim voters in the state, which helped Congress win 22 seats in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier the BJP on Tuesday complained to the Election Commission that Salman Khurshid had violated the model code of conduct by promising nine per cent sub-quota for backward Muslims in Uttar Pradesh if voted to power.

A BJP delegation, led by party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, submitted a memorandum to Chief Eelection Commissioner S Y Quraishi in connection with reports that Khurshid had made the announcement on Monday at a public meeting in Farrukhabad where his wife Louis in fray.

“He has also indicated that Muslims will be benefited from this move. This is an unconstitutional announcement and a blatant violation of model code of conduct,” BJP said.

Naqvi later told reporters that this was a “criminal conspiracy” on the part of the Congress and a “dangerous move towards the path of communal conflict and disharmony“.