Jarange-Patil to hold a statewide tour for reservation

Not only this, he has called a public rally of the community outside Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district, where he was holding his indefinite hunger strike before calling it off on the 17th day in front of chief minister Eknath Shinde. A 100-acre plot has been booked for the public rally

Mumbai The trouble for the Maharashtra government appears to be far from over as Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil is set to launch a statewide tour for Maratha reservation. The 14-day tour is going to start from this month end and conclude on October 13, when the 30-day ultimatum given to the state government for providing reservation will end.

Jarange-Patil to hold a statewide tour for reservation

Not only this, he has called a public rally of the community outside Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district, where he was holding his indefinite hunger strike before calling it off on the 17th day in front of chief minister Eknath Shinde. A 100-acre plot has been booked for the public rally.

The idea of the statewide tour and rally is to mobilize Marathas and also to remind the state government of their assurance to give reservation to the community, said Jarange-Patil.

This would mean more trouble for the three-party alliance government which is already on the back foot after a lathicharge on the Maratha protestors who had gathered at the hunger strike protest site on September 1.

“The tour is to remind the government of the promise they made to give us reservation. It has been planned in such a way that it will end when the 30-day ultimatum also ends - October 13,” Jarange-Patil told HT.

Jarange-Patil said that he will try to cover most of the districts of the state. The details of the tour is likely to be announced on Monday. “We have also planned a sabha (gathering) outside Antarwali Sarathi village on October 14 where the community will be asked to not give up until we will get what is our right,” he added.

It was Jarange-Patil who started an indefinite hunger strike demanding reservation for the community at Antarwali Sarathi village on September 29. On the fourth day, when a police contingent tried to forcibly admit him to hospital, a clash ensued between the police and Jarange-Patil’s supporters. After the lathi charge, teargas shells and “police brutality” made the headlines, the hitherto unknown Maratha activist burst into the political limelight.

On September 14, he called off the hunger strike after accepting juice from chief minister Shinde who also assured him of providing reservation to the Maratha community.

He has been demanding that Marathas from Marathwada region be extended reservation under the Other Backward Classes category by declaring them as Kunbis — a sub-caste recognised as OBC. This is despite the state government’s decision of issuing Kunbi certificates to the Marathas from Marathwada if they could produce Nizam-era records and genealogical records mentioning Kunbi.

This has already irked the OBC as well as Kunbi communities who are holding agitations demanding assurance in writing from the government that their quota will not be shared with Marathas. Kunbis get reservation in the OBC category while Marathas come under the open category.

Soon after the Maratha reservation issue came to the fore, OBC and Dhangar communities too started holding agitations across the state. OBC groups have demanded caste-based census apart from an assurance in writing that their quota will remain intact while Dhangars want to be incorporated in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category which will increase their reservation quota from the existing 3.5% to 7%.