A five-person team went from here on Friday evening for Mumbai to meet with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, despite Maratha quota campaigner Manoj Jarange’s threat to escalate his current hunger strike starting this weekend.
In Jalna district’s Antarwali Sarati hamlet, Jarange is demanding reservations for the Maratha community. On Friday, his hunger strike reached its eleventh day. He informed reporters that if a solution is not found by Saturday night, he would quit taking even IV fluids.
In order for the Marathas from the Marathwada region to receive the Kunbi caste certificates and qualify for OBC quota, he has urged that the government remove the condition that they provide proof of ancestry.
Arjun Khotkar, the head of the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), Madhukar Rajeardad, the sarpanch of Antarwali Sarati village, and two quota activists boarded a flight from Aurangabad airport to Mumbai in the evening, Khotkar informed PTI.
He said that they will have a late-night meeting with Shinde and the deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
Jarange had already urged the community to continue the quota agitation via legal channels rather than by “pelting stones” in the air.
“They need to make noise within the law. There’s no need to stir things up by throwing rocks at them, he replied.
On Thursday, the state government issued a Government Resolution (GR) stating that Kunbi caste certificates will only be awarded upon the provision of genealogical data from the Nizam rule by Maratha community members from the Marathwada area. The area was once a part of the Hyderabad state under Nizam control.
The Other Backward Classes (OBC) classification includes the Kunbis population, which is known for their vocations in agriculture. As such, they are entitled to reservation advantages in government employment and education.
When the police last week baton-charged a rowdy crowd at Antarwali Sarati after demonstrators reportedly refused to allow officials to transfer Jarange to the hospital, the Maratha quota controversy once again took center stage.
The violence resulted in the injuries of many people, including 40 police officers, and the burning of more than 15 state transportation vehicles.
