State govt faces hunger pangs

Also, Kunbis and other existing castes in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category would come out on the roads to protect their quota. For the past few days, ministers and officials have been scratching their brains to find out a solution to end the activist’s fast

The priority for the state government at the moment is to end the fast of Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil who has been sitting on a hunger strike for the past two weeks. According to a senior minister, negotiating with the activist has become a tricky affair. He first demanded Kunbi certificates for Marathas in the Marathwada region since they were recorded as Kunbi in the revenue records during the pre-1948 Nizam rule. Accordingly, the government issued a Government Resolution (GR) approving the reservation. However, Jarange Patil refused to withdraw his hunger strike and demanded a fresh GR which removed the condition of producing Nizam-era documents.

State govt faces hunger pangs

Officials handling the issue say such a GR would mean offering Kunbi certificates to all Marathas in Marathwada or Central Maharashtra, which would lead to similar demands from other parts of the state. Also, Kunbis and other existing castes in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category would come out on the roads to protect their quota. For the past few days, ministers and officials have been scratching their brains to find out a solution to end the activist’s fast.

Jarange Patil is also apparently not acknowledging the legal issues involved which has made this task difficult. “Issuing a GR giving blanket permission to term all Marathas as Kunbis would be set aside by the court since it goes against the spirit of the Supreme Court judgement on the issue,” said another minister involved in the process. To complicate matters further, Jarange Patil is refusing to negotiate with the government in a closed-door meeting which is what typically happens in case of agitations. On September 5, as three state ministers reached Atarwali Sarati village where he is sitting on hunger strike, Jarange Patil insisted that the talks should happen in front of everyone. The trio had to discuss the government proposal in full media glare with hundreds of people gathered around them. Needless to say, it did not work out.

The importance of Arjun Khotkar

Being a Maratha was a factor why BJP leaders chose to make Eknath Shinde the chief minister when they formed the government. His government also has more than a dozen Maratha ministers including deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. However, none of them have been able to step in to end the protests that have become a headache for this government. The responsibility to deal with Jarange Patil and other activists has fallen on Arjun Khotkar, a former minister. Ironically, when Shinde split the Shiv Sena, Khotkar, a former MLA from Jalna, was not keen to leave the Thackeray faction. He was later convinced by Shinde faction leaders to join them. He has now turned out to be a key person in dealing with Jarange Patil. He has been negotiating with the activist even after Girish Mahajan—a proven troubleshooter of the BJP government—failed to convince the activist to withdraw his hunger strike. Significantly, the political heavyweight from the district, union minister of state for railways Raosaheb Danve is missing from the action at the moment. Danve, himself a Maratha, paid a visit to Jarange Patil and attended Shinde’s meeting in Mumbai. Since then, he is busy in Delhi with the G20 Summit.

Pankaja’s yatra for political rehabilitation

After a two-month break from politics, senior BJP leader Pankaja Munde has embarked on a 11-day ‘Shiv Shakti Yatra’. She has planned to travel over 5,000 km through 10 districts, visiting 11 temples. The timing of her tour could not be better for her as the OBC reservation issue is in focus. OBC outfits have begun protesting against the move to give Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas. Munde, once regarded as the party’s OBC face, has started voicing her opposition to the same while insisting that she is in favour of reservation for Marathas. Will her yatra be enough for her to revive her political fortunes? She has been sidelined in the affairs of state BJP. She may find it difficult to get back her assembly constituency in Beed district from her cousin and NCP (Ajit faction) minister Dhananjay Munde who defeated her in 2019. The current situation may give her a chance to reinvent herself as a state-level OBC leader, or that’s what people close to her believe.

Image makeover

With concerns in the party over its fate in the elections next year, chief minister Eknath Shinde’s team has hired consultants to improve the image of the party and its MLAs. In the past few weeks, the Sena MLAs have been asked to work with these consultants who conduct surveys, find out what the people in their constituencies say about the MLAs and give inputs on what needs to be done to improve their image among the voters. Will it work? The party, and the voters, will have to wait and watch.