“Reservation is not religion based…”: Lalu Prasad Yadav after PM Modi intensifies attack on INDIA bloc

Patna (Bihar) [India], May 7 (ANI): Rebutting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegations that the INDIA bloc wants to take away reservation from backward communities and transfer it to the Muslims, former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said that reservation is given on the basis of social backwardness and not on religion basis.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo further claimed that it was he who implemented the Mandal Commission.

Speaking to ANI, Lalu Prasad Yadav said, “I implemented the ‘Mandal Commission’. Reservation samajik adhar par hota hai dharmik aadhar par nahi hota hai (it is based on social-backwardness and not based on religion). Atal Bihari Vajpayee constituted the Constitution Review Commission.”

Lalu Prasad Yadav further said that after three phases of voting in the Lok Sabha elections, the “trend is in the favour of INDIA bloc”, and claimed that BJP will fail to win even 200 seats.

“We are getting reports in our favour after the third phase. They are saying 400-plus to induce psychological pressure, they won’t even cross 200,” he said.

“They (BJP) want to end reservation, they are against backwards and Dalits,” the RJD supremo added.

His remarks come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the RJD supremo and the INDIA bloc, alleging that it wants to give the whole reservation to the Muslim community.

“Today, a senior leader of the INDI alliance …a leader who is in jail for eating cattle fodder…he was convicted by the court, was in prison, is out on bail only on health grounds…Today, he was proudly saying that Muslims should get reservation, and not just that, he wants the whole reservation to be given to them,” PM Modi said in a public meeting in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

“This means, they want to snatch the whole reservation of SC, ST and OBC and give it to Muslims…I had only alleged that Opposition is planning to snatch a part of the reservation, but their conspiracy is even bigger, they want to take away the whole reservation,” he added.

Earlier in the day, former Bihar CM Lalu Yadav called for a Muslim quota in the reservation.

“Muslims should get a reservation (Reservation toh milna chahiye Musalmano ko, pura),” he told ANI.

Polling in Bihar, which sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha, is being held across all seven phases. The counting of votes for all phases is scheduled for June 4.

The voting on five seats in Bihar is ongoing as part of the third phase of the Lok Sabha election today. The five seats are Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, and Khagaria.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP-led NDA nearly mopped up the poll sweepstakes in the state, winning 39 of the 40 seats. (ANI)