Mulayam Singh Yadav has also tried to woo the upper castes in his party's manifesto.
Samajwadi Party (SP), struggling to retain its base in Uttar Pradesh, today unveiled a please-all manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. While Muslims came in for a special attention,
Mulayam Singh Yadav's party also tried to woo the upper castes by promising to set up a commission to identify the poorer" among them for providing reservation.
Mr Yadav, who released the manifesto in Lucknow, reiterated his party's commitment to introduce reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the numerically-significant Muslims. The community has been traditionally loyal to the SP, and had voted aggressively for it in the assembly polls in 2012 assembly polls, but appears to have been disenchanted with the Akhilesh Yadav government because of its inept handling of the Muzaffarnagar riots.
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In its manifesto for the assembly polls held two years ago, the party had promised to bring in 18% quota for Muslims, which was commensurate with their population in the state.
"We will give them reservations on the basis of their population,'' Mr Yadav said. He also vowed to "release" all Muslims framed in "false" terror cases in the country.
Mr Yadav said his party will implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee, which had painted a sorry picture of the community's status in various parts of the country. "The report has said that Muslims are in a bad state in this country. We urged the Centre to do something, but they did nothing,'' he alleged.
The party offered sops to other communities. It promised to set up an "Upper Caste Commission'' to look into the proposal of extending reservations to the "poorer" among them. It simultaneously identified 17 castes, including Hajjams (barbers), Kashyap and Mallahs (fishermen), to be brought within the ambit of SC/ST reservation.
The document makes a strong pitch for making education "free" at all levels, including medical and technical education.
Mr Yadav's party, which professes its claims of being a national player, promised to set up AIIMS in all states, and supply "free medicines" to all.