Congress committed to increase quota cap to 75%: Siddaramaiah

With just two weeks away for the polling for 224 Assembly seats in Karnataka, Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said that his party is "committed" to increasing the reservation limit from the current 50 per cent to 75 per cent.

"Congress party is committed to increasing the reservation limit from 50% to 75%, and to increase reservation to all castes based on their population," the former Karnataka CM tweeted.

His comment is seen as an attempt to consolidate SC and OBC votes in the upcoming polls. It has to be noted that Rahul Gandhi had recently raked up the quota issue while calling for the removal of the 50 per cent ceiling on quotas.

In an election rally in Kolar, Rahul Gandhi demanded reservations for Dalits and tribals based on their population. "Take these three steps: Make the 2011 census figures public, tell how many OBCs are there in the country and remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations. Give reservation to Dalits, tribals according to their population," Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the 2011 census figures public.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an up-to-date caste census, saying meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes are not complete in the absence of such data. Since then, many parties have joined the Congress demanding the Centre to conduct caste census. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar's government in Bihar has already started a caste survey.

Meanwhile, the 'quota' issue became a campaign issue after the BJP scrapped 4 per cent for Muslims, just days before the Election Commission announced the date for the polls.

The four per cent reservation for Muslims was to be equally split between Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

Meanwhile, former Karnataka CM and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa slammed Siddaramaiah over his tweet and said, "When he is going to lose miserably, that question does not arise. We are going to form the Govt. We will do whatever is needed."