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Updated: Jan 07, 2019 21:02 IST

A small group of top ministers and officials had worked past midnight on Sunday on the constitution amendment bill that was presented before the Union Cabinet’s meeting on Monday. That the government had been working on the move to give 10 per cent reservation benefit to the general category had been a closely-guarded secret, known only to a handful of ministers and the government’s top officials.

Junior social welfare minister Ramdas Athawale has called the move “a masterstroke” and predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would deliver “many more sixers” over the next few months.

In one go, the 10 per cent quota benefits for jobs and educational institutions holds the potential to consolidate support among the upper castes for the BJP. These communities had been feeling alienated from the BJP after it went into overdrive mode to reverse the impact of the Supreme Court verdict that diluted the Dalit atrocity law.

The BJP is believed to have come across resentment among the upper castes during the recent state elections also in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The feedback from Uttar Pradesh also has been on similar lines.

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A BJP leader said the decision could be the starting point to build a rainbow coalition of social and caste groups that brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014.

At Monday’s meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the cabinet approval “a historic step”. It has addressed a long-standing demand from the so-called upper caste communities who have often hit the roads to seek their inclusion as other backward classes for quota benefits.

Government functionaries would not say when the work on the legislation had started. But it went on till quite late on Sunday night. One source said a small team that went over the cabinet note worked on the draft till about 2 am.

Sources said the bill would be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

“There is a possibility that the Winter Session might be extended by a day or so if necessary,” a Union Minister said, hinting that the government would ideally like Lok Sabha to take up the constitution amendment bill as soon as possible.

Opposition leaders later said they had been sounded out by the government for extending the session but had made it clear that they were not in favour of the move.