Chennai, Sep 6 (PTI): In a move that might complicate UPA government's efforts to push through the bill to provide reservation in promotion to SCs and STs in government jobs, its key southern ally DMK today backed Samajwadi Party's demand for extending similar quota to OBCs also.

"SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav did not say there should be no reservation for SC and ST communities, but only questioned why the Bill did not cover OBCs. This policy is acceptable to us also," DMK president M Karunanidhi said in a statement. Karunanidhi's backing of the SP supremo's stand may cause more discomfort for UPA government, which introduced the bill in the Rajya Sabha today, amid a ruckus that saw two members of arch rivals SP and BSP locked in fisticuffs.

Karunanidhi said the point raised by Yadav was taken up by DMK MP T R Baalu at a meeting of Parliamentary party leaders in Delhi. Holding that the Bill is an "important" one, the DMK chief requested the cooperation of all parties for its smooth passage in Parliament as only two days are left for the end of the current Monsoon session.