The Cabinet used a special sitting on Sunday to approve reservation for the Jat community.
The Union Cabinet decided not to push Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's pet anti-corruption bills through ordinances, but used a special sitting on Sunday to approve reservation for the Jat community and also changes in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill that provides for a Telangana state.
Jats in nine states will now be included in the central list of Other Backward Castes or OBCs and will be eligible for reservation in jobs and educational institutions, a long-standing demand.
The community has a big presence in states like Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and also in Uttar Pradesh, which will send 80 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha in the general elections due by May.
The Congress lost states like Rajasthan and Delhi in assembly elections held recently and is working hard to ensure they do not reject it again in the national elections.
Jat leader Ajit Singh, whose INLD or Indian National Lok Dal is part of the Congress-led UPA, thanked Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister. In Uttar Pradesh, Ajit Singh faces a tough battle with a resurgent BJP wooing his community.
In its Sunday sitting, the Cabinet did not formally take up the anti-corruption bills; sources said Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Law Minister Kapil Sibal brought the matter up, suggesting that they needed to be discussed further in Parliament.
The two ministers had met President Pranab Mukherjee, who was reportedly reluctant to approve the ordinances.
There has been much criticism of the ruling Congress' bid to push legislation through the ordinances before the general elections. In its last lap, a government conventionally leaves the fate of pending bills to be decided by the next government.
"To promulgate ordinances to suit the ruling party's interests after Parliament has been adjourned on the eve of election announcement, will amount to a blatantly anti-democratic and partisan exercise," CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in a letter to the President yesterday.
Rahul Gandhi, who takes credit on behalf of his party for the anti-graft Lokpal Bill being passed in parliament two months ago, had wanted six more bills passed to complete what he calls a framework for his fight against corruption.