Former central minister Nitish Kumar Friday said his Janata Dal-United (JD-U) party will offer quotas in government jobs to 'Dalit Muslims' if voted to power in Bihar.

Kumar made the statement during a meeting of JD-U's minority cell here.

With assembly elections scheduled for early next year, Kumar's promise is seen as a move to win over Muslim votes, which has long been the strength of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Kumar earlier blamed the 2002 Gujarat riots, in which more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, for the defeat in April-May of the National Democratic Alliance central government, of which he was a part.

He has also said his alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the government in Gujarat, was a political compulsion, but he may come out of it to oust the RJD government here.

Kumar is not the only opposition leader angling for Muslim votes. Lok Janashakti Party chief and central minister Ramvilas Paswan has also promised 10 percent reservation to Muslims in government jobs if his party wins the elections.

Nearly half the rural Muslims and about 45 percent of urban Muslims in Bihar live below the poverty line, according the state minorities commission.

--Indo-Asian News Service