Patna: The RJD has decided not to ask for a tweak in the existing reservation limits in spite of demands from the upper castes, but the party will only make the formal announcement during its meeting on Tuesday.

Sources said the RJD has decided to play it safe on the matter, because the community is not a core voter for the party. It will maintain "status quo", citing the Constitution and other examples on September 11 when the leaders will meet at 10 Circular Road.

"The issue of reservation to the upper caste was discussed on Sunday and we want to take this issue to the people of Bihar about how the BJP is cheating them. However, this is the not the right time to speak in detail and our leader, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, will brief the media on September 11 after the RJD meeting," national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari said after the party's meeting at 5 Deshratna Marg on Sunday.

The NDA has been on defence following the aggressive stance taken by upper caste organisations during Thursday's Bharat Bandh. After the agitation, many NDA leaders came forward claiming support for the demand. In Bihar, the JDU, BJP, LJP, Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular and even Congress have shared their opinion on the matter. Only the RJD has not spoken a word on it.

Realising the contentious issue, Tejashwi called a meeting of the RJD's core group members to discuss reservation to upper caste members. Jagadanand Singh, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Mangani Lal Mandal, Ram Chandra Purbey, Alok Kumar Mehta, Shiv Chandra Ram, Tanveer Hasan, Lalit Yadav, Sweety Hembram and Kumar Sarabjit attended the three-hour meeting

"The party has decided to maintain status quo on reservation to the upper caste, citing references from the Constitution which does not have any place for such a demand. We will cite an example from 1992 in which the Supreme Court had struck down a paragraph added in 1991 by the PV Narasimha Rao government, providing 10 per cent reservation for other economically backward sections not covered in the existing reservation policy. The court had said the paragraph was constitutionally invalid," said a senior RJD leader. "We will say that even late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had once promised to form an 'expert commission' for the economically backward not covered by the existing reservation but failed.

"These are our justifications, because our party follows Mandal politics and not Kamandal. Besides, the Constitution does not allow any such change," he added.