‘We want 27 per cent reservation’

BANGALORE: A backward class convention led by former Prime Minister V P Singh on Tuesday demanded 27 per cent reservation for backward classes in the IIMs and IITs and for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe youth in the private sector.

The Mannina Maha Janathe (son of the soil) rally, organised by Siddaramaiah, a bitter foe of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda passed a resolution for reservation. Over 50,000 people attended the rally.

Singh, along with former Union minister Ajit Singh and actor Raj Babbar of Jan Morcha, the political platform that they revived last week, demanded that the government should bring in legislation to make reservation mandatory in the private sector.

Siddaramaiah was ousted from the previous Dharam Singh ministry for convening backward class rallies across the state.