BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi with his wife shows their inked finger after casting vote during third phase of Bihar assembly elections, in Patna on Wednesday, October 28, 2015. (Press Trust of India photo)
Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi today alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and ally Lalu Prasad were conspiring to take away the quota share of Dalits and backward communities and give it to "minorities".
"... Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad are trying to take away the nine per cent quota from Dalits and backward communities to give the same to minorities," he said in a statement.
He also claimed that Mr Kumar had advocated inclusion of Dalit Muslim communities in the Scheduled Castes (SC) list and had demanded reservation for minorities on religious grounds.
Mr Modi further claimed that Mr Prasad had, in his party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls last year, proposed amending Article 341 of the Constitution for inclusion of Muslims and Christians in the SC category.
He also alleged that senior Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Salman Khurshid had promised quota for Muslims a few years ago.
Attacking Mr Prasad for supporting consumption of cow meat by Hindus, Mr Modi said he was now "maintaining a stoic silence on a beef party thrown by a Jammu and Kashmir legislator".