Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, other BJP workers detained during protests over OBC reservation

Some other BJP workers who were gathered at their party office to begin a 'morcha' in front of the Maharashtra Secretariat demanding political reservation of the OBC were also detained by the Mumbai Police.

The former Maharashtra chief minister and the present leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis was detained on Saturday during the protest over the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the local bodies reservation in Nagpur.

Mumbai: Police detain BJP workers who were staging a Chakka Jam protest over the issue of reservation for Other Backward Classes, at Dahisar Naka. (PTI)

Some other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who were gathered at their party office to begin a 'morcha' in front of the Maharashtra Secretariat demanding political reservation of the OBC were also detained by the Mumbai Police on Saturday.

Among many protestors, the police detained former Mumbai minister Girish Mahajan, Mumbai BJP chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and MLC Rahul Narvekar. The police detained the protestors, who had planned for a 'chakkajam', before the march towards the Secretariat could begin.

The police said that all protestors have been taken to the Marine Line Police station, as per a report by news agency ANI.

"The MVA government has failed to protect the OBC's reservation. The issue can be solved through Centre Government's intervention, and our leader, Devendra Fadnavis can help with the same. The MVA leaders should come to him to take his help over the issue, but they would not come because they would rather delay it. It is a matter of credit taking for them," ANI quoted MLA Kalidas Kolambakar as saying hitting out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the state for their incapacity to provide reservations.

"Today we are holding protests state-wide, at a 1000 places to pressurise the Government to expedite the process. Our demand is to restore the 27 per cent political reservation in all local body elections in the state," he added.

The plan to hold a statewide protest demanding the political OBC reservations was announced by the BJP on Thursday.

The Supreme Court had observed that the reservation in the favor of OBC in local bodies should not lead to the surpassing of 50 per cent cap in reservation quota. The apex court had rejected the state government's review petition concerning the political reservation.

The OBC had lost their political reservations in the local bodies of Maharashtra comprising of municipal corporations, municipal councils, zilla parishads, gram panchayats etc.

Earlier this month, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the Centre is expected to take positive decisions on matters of Maratha and OBC reservation.

(With inputs from ANI)