Patna, May 17 (IANS) Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday announced that a postal stamp would be released in honour of erstwhile Indian emperor Ashoka.

He also said he would also pursue the installation of a big statue of Ashoka in Patna and Delhi.

"The government would soon release a postal stamp in the honour of emperor Ashoka," Prasad said at a function organised by Bharatiya Janata Party here to celebrate birth anniversary of Ashoka, believed to be from the present-day agrarian caste Kushwaha.

In the caste-ridden Bihar politics, BJP has tried to play Ashoka's cards ahead of next Bihar assembly polls to woo Kushwaha, an Other Backward Class that account nearly 9 percent of Bihar's 10.5 crore population.