In the past, almost every political party, Vasundhara Raje said, promised reservation for the poor among upper castes but it was never fulfilled. A cabinet meeting would take up the report tomorrow and consider its implementation at the earliest, she said.

While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was the first to demand a quota for the upper caste poor — it was seconded by BJP’s L K Advani — the Vasundhara Raje government has become the first to have such a policy in place. But this raises more questions than anything else.

For one, will the new measure pass muster with the Supreme Court having fixed the 50 per cent ceiling for quotas in government jobs? “The SC had said that state governments can exceed the 50 per cent slab under special circumstances, but the court must be convinced by those arguments,” said a close aide of Vasundhara Raje. There are also fears that this will prompt other states to make similar demands.