The Election Commission Thursday censured law and minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid for promising a 9% sub-quota for minorities. The EC, which had protested Khurshid’s remark that the commission was under the administrative control of the law ministry, reminded him that he had an added responsibility to observe the model code of conduct.

The order came on a BJP complaint that Khurshid had made the announcement at a poll meeting last month in UP’s Farrukhabad, from where his wife Louis is contesting. The EC rejected Khurshid’s defence that the sub-quota to be carved out of the 27% OBC quota was reiteration of an earlier promise.