(From left): BJP president Rajnath Singh and party leaders Arun Jaitley and Sanjay Joshi at the national executive meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, May 30: After a stormy debate on OBC quotas, the BJP today formally ratified party president Rajnath Singh’s call for reservation for the economically backward among the upper castes.

The BJP’s political resolution, passed by the executive committee after a debate lasting almost two hours, is an ambivalent document that supports reservation for the Other Backward Classes as well as the BJP chief’s stand on a quota for upper castes. The two-day executive committee meeting concluded today.

There is no mention of Lal Krishna Advani’s suggestion to evaluate the impact of reservations so far on the socio-economic status of the vulnerable sections.

Only one addition has been made to Rajnath’s stand ? a committee should be set up to ensure that extension of reservations does not reduce the space for merit.

Toeing Rajnath’s line, the resolution said the economically backward among the upper castes should be brought under the quota umbrella and benefits of reservations should reach the most deprived among the socially deprived.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said Advani’s suggestion was to initiate a debate on alternative ways of extending social justice.

“Advaniji has made a suggestion for discovering alternative ways of extending social justice. The party has taken a balanced stand ? that political consensus is a pre-requisite for any initiative to advance social justice. What the government has done is to create social divisions. It doesn’t serve anybody’s cause,” he said.

A number of senior leaders, secretary Bandaru Dattatreya, deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Modi and Maharashtra leader Gopinath Munde, however, attacked the party’s ambivalent stand on reservations.

“We should take a clear stand on the issue,” Modi reportedly said during the meeting.

A section of the party leaders ? S.S. Ahluwalia, Arun Shourie and Kalraj Mishra ? also questioned the rationale behind the current reservation policy.

But several OBC and Scheduled Tribe leaders like Vinay Katiyar, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Satya Narayan Jatia supported the party’s stand on reservations for the economically backward upper castes.

The prevalent view in the BJP seemed to be that it should not lose out either on the traditional upper-caste support base or the OBCs.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi echoed this sentiment, supporting the party’s stand.

“The Congress has already damaged its prospects in the controversy. Why should we follow their example? We need to take a balanced view,” he reportedly said.

Rajnath denied any division in the party on the quota.

“There is no controversy. The national executive has endorsed whatever I had said yesterday,” the BJP chief said.