Explain quota line, BJP tells its CMs

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SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav at a programme where the CM distributed unemployment

Sensing that the Congress and BSP may try to get mileage out of the SC/ST promotion quota bill in the coming election battle in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and later in states including Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan where Assembly polls are scheduled next year, the BJP high command has asked its chief ministers and state leaders to explain the party’s pro-SC/ST line forcefully.
In the recently-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament, the BJP did not support the government on the bill feeling that it would weaken its anti-corruption stance against the Congress-led UPA.
But after the session, the BJP appears to have modified its view and asked its state leaders and CMs to make it clear to the people that the party is not against the bill.
In Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where Assembly polls are scheduled in November-December, there is a sizeable SC/ST population and the saffron party does not want that its stand on the bill in Parliament hits its poll prospects.
Questioning the timing of the bill when the BJP-led NDA and other opposition parties had pushed the government to the corner over Coalgate, the main opposition had set two pre-conditions for allowing a debate on the bill. It even rejected BSP supremo Mayawati’s request to allow Parliament to function to pass the bill and kept disrupting the proceedings demanding cancellation of controversial coal blocks and independent probe into the issue along with the Prime Minister’s resignation. As a result Monsoon Session ended without passing the bill. Sources disclosed that the BJP top brass received calls from senior leaders from states raising concern over its stand on the bill. Though the party in principle supports the bill, it did not heed to the requests from government and BSP to allow the Parliament to function, which was interpreted as its opposition to the bill.
After the BJP top brass received feedbacks from states that Congress might try to get a political mileage out of it, the party has asked its state leaders to convey to the masses, especially to people belonging to the SC/ST community, that the saffron party is with them.
The BJP top brass has also asked its CMs and leaders to highlight schemes and other initiatives undertaken by the BJP led governments for the SC/ST community.