Salman Khurshid agrees to abide by Election Commission's guidelines

Sultanpur //Lucknow Feb 14 (ANI): Commenting on the poll panel's strictures against him for violating the poll code by promoting minority reservation, Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid has said that he would abide by the Election Commission's guidelines.

"It is absolutely ok; if they have said it then there is no problem in this. It is our legal set up and we have to obey that. What we cannot say today that we will not say. We will say when needed. Let Election Commission do its work," Khurshid told media here.

Election Commission has its responsibility and let them work according to their responsibilities and we will work according to our responsibilities and there is no point of debating this topic and there is no problem," he added.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti said that it was for the Election Commission to decide on the episode.

"Election Commission has to decide this whether it will absolve Salman Khurshid or not but Salman Khurshid has violated the model code of conduct and I think that the Election Commission should investigate the matter but who are we to advise the Election Commission," Bharti said in Lucknow.

During a recent poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Khurshid had promised that if the Congress party was voted to power in the state, the sub-quota for Muslims would be increased to nine per cent within the 27 per cent reservation meant for Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The Election Commission of India (ECI) slapped Khurshid with a notice, saying his remarks had violated the model code of conduct.

The Election Commission sought the "immediate and decisive" intervention of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil after it charged Khurshid with "improper and unlawful" defiance of its orders under which he was censured for promising sub-quota for minorities.

President Patil has sent Election Commission's complaint against Salman Khurshid to Prime Minister's Office for appropriate action.

Extending quotas in government jobs and educational institutes to backward minorities was being projected as a key initiative of the Congress-led UPA coalition ahead of the 2012 assembly polls in Pradesh, which has a substantial Muslim population. (ANI)