Ajit skips Baramati visit as Maratha reservation protests escalate

On the fourth day of his fast-unto-death on Saturday, a weak-looking Manoj Jarange-Patil appealed to Maratha activists across the state to start a relay hunger strike from Sunday, saying that the state government had gone back on its promises

PUNE: Ajit Pawar on Saturday became one of the many leaders to be stalled by the fury of the rapidly intensifying Maratha agitation for reservation benefits. The deputy chief minister was forced to cancel his proposed visit to Baramati, as activists have banned the entry of all leaders, especially those in the government, to villages till the quota issue is satisfactorily resolved.

Ajit skips Baramati visit as Maratha reservation protests escalate (HT PHOTO)

According to his close aides, Ajit was to visit Baramati to attend the beginning of the new sugarcane-crushing season of the Malegaon cooperative sugar factory, which has been in his control for more than two decades. However, given the verbal aggression that activists who had converged near the factory unleashed against him, Ajit chose to avoid any confrontation and sit at home in his Pune residence instead.

On the fourth day of his fast-unto-death on Saturday, a weak-looking Manoj Jarange-Patil appealed to Maratha activists across the state to start a relay hunger strike from Sunday, saying that the state government had gone back on its promises. “If anything happens to any activist on hunger strike, the government will be responsible for it,” declared Jarange-Patil, who resumed his hunger strike at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna earlier this week.

Following his statement, Maratha organisations warned deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar not to come to Pandharpur for the annual Kartiki Ekadashi event at the famous Lord Vithal temple. The deputy CMs perform a pooja on behalf of the state government on Kartiki Ekadashi at the temple, but after the warning by the Sakal Maratha Kranti Morcha, a question mark hovers over the pooja this year.

The ban on entering villages, which extends to leaders of all political parties, was enforced with aggression by Maratha activists. In Sangli, district guardian minister Suresh Khade was shown black flags, while in Beed district furious Marathas damaged the car of former Shiv Sena MLA Badamrao Pandit, as he tried to enter a village. Earlier, on Friday, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) legislator Rohit Pawar had to suspend his ongoing Yuva Sangharsh Yatra, but said that he had done so to extend his support to the demand for Maratha reservation.

While Jarange-Patil has been publicly appealing to Marathas not to give up their lives, two more suicides took place in pursuance of the demand for reservation. On Friday, a farmer from Latur, Mahesh Kadam (26) consumed poison on his farm. “Drought doesn’t allow us to live, and a lack of reservation does not allow us to get educated,” he wrote in a letter before committing suicide. Kadam died at a hospital in Ahmedpur on Saturday, the same day that the police found the body of a former sarpanch of Latur district, Venkat Narsingh Dhopre (65), in the Indrayani river in Pune. Dhopre reportedly ended his life after leaving a note that said, ‘Marathas must get reservation by right.’

Against the backdrop of this widespread unrest, a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha reservation will be held on Monday. “The sub-committee will review the work done till now by the Justice (Rtd) Sandeep Shinde committee in connection with the process of giving Maratha-Kunbi and Kunbi-Maratha caste certificates to the Maratha community in Marathwada,” said higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil, who is also the chairperson of the cabinet sub-committee.