BJP hails apex court decision on minority quota

New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to stay Andhra Pradesh High Court's decision quashing the minority sub-quota.

Talking to reporters here, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman also charged the Congress-led government with having a communal agenda and going in for "vote-bank politics".

"Congress has been steadfastly and continuously following the communal agenda. We saw it in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. In spite of the results in these elections giving the message that voters have rejected the communal agenda, Congress has not learnt its lessons," she said.

The Supreme Court Monday declined to suspend, for now, the Andhra Pradesh High Court's verdict quashing 4.5 percent sub-quota for the minorities within 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC).

Sitharaman also said that the central government acted in a "casual manner" in the matter.

"Like a magician, they pulled this (sub-quota) out of their hat. It was not in their manifesto. Such reservation politics has been overwhelmingly rejected by the people," she said.

The high court had May 28 quashed the 4.5 percent sub-quota created last year by central government in the reservation for the OBCs.