‘We will stay here as long as Jarange wants us to’

Family, friends and well-wishers dispatched truckloads of cooked food to Mumbai from the rural heartland. Every household contributed to the effort

MUMBAI: As the Maratha quota protestors continued to lay siege to parts of South Mumbai, Nandkumar Bahir, 45, from Beed, perhaps summed up their mood best when he remarked, “Jarange is like God to us now. We will stay here as long as he wants us to. Arrangements will keep coming from our villages.”

Mumbai, India. Sep 01, 2025 - Protesters from the Maratha community took their lunch outside Azad Maidan. Maratha quota agitation leader Manoj Jarange Patil began an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai from Friday. Over 50,000 supporters and members of the Maratha community gathered at Azad Maidan to show their support for Jarange Patil. He has been staging this hunger strike to demand a 10 percent quota for Marathas under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. Mumbai, India. Sep 01, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)

As the protestors continued to take over CSMT; squat on railway tracks; dance and chant in local trains; cook, eat and toss garbage everywhere; and use public spaces to relieve themselves, they were being remembered fondly back home.

Family, friends and well-wishers dispatched truckloads of cooked food to Mumbai from the rural heartland. Every household contributed to the effort, sending bhakris, pickles and other cooked edibles for the protestors.

Trucks pulled up outside the Bombay Gymkhana, packed with fruits straight from farms. Nitin Pawar from Baramati said, “This is from the farmers in Baramati. Some have sent oranges, others guavas and mosambis.”

At one of the entrances to Azad Maidan, Sunil Katkar from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar managed a team of 100 people cooking and serving the protestors. “When you are feeding people, you do it from the heart,” he said, pointing to the elaborate arrangements around him. “Every day, we are sent quality oil, vegetables, rice, masala, Bisleri water. We have two truckloads of gas cylinders and have even brought our own generators for electricity,” he said.

When not defacing the streets, chanting slogans and blocking roads, protestors were shopping in the CSMT subway, buying a change of clothes, and attempting to gate crash the Cricket Club of India and Bombay Gymkhana.

While all these goings-on disrupted life near Azad Maidan, a giant screen was being erected outside the BMC headquarters. Soon, it will live-stream Maratha quota leader Manoj Jarange-Patil on his indefinite fast. “We have put this up with our own money,” said Subhash Mohite, 24, from Satara. “Everyone from our villages has contributed a little.”

CSMT a ‘fun zone’

CSMT railway station has turned into an arena for fun and entertainment for the protestors, who have been dancing in large groups, playing kabbadi, wrestling and lounging about the large concourse area that leads to the platforms on the Main and Harbour lines.

Many are in Mumbai for the first time, and clicking selfies at the grand terminus building is a favourite pastime. Others were seen running around the premises, spitting and tossing food and paper plates onto the railway tracks and station premises.

Some commuters describe the phenomena as an “invasion” of the trains as protestors performed antics inside the coaches – dancing inside and hanging by the steel handles.

Trains were running late, with protestors squatting on the tracks of platform 2-3, bringing trains to a standstill for 15 minutes.

The railway staff at CSMT said they have created two enclosures, where the protestors are resting and charging their phones. The enclosures, though, meant little to them. They danced and frolicked – inside and outside these spaces.

Commuters, meanwhile, had to squeeze in the space between the two enclosures, rushing to the platforms or the ticket counters.

Road transport in disarray

On Monday, the BEST diverted 550-600 buses running on more than 50 routes. In fact, since August 29, when the protestors first entered Mumbai, the undertaking has halted operations on 50-60 buses each day, between Dadar/Sion towards CSMT and Colaba via major arterial roads.

“The routes we’ve shut are based on information provided by the Mumbai police on roads closed to traffic. We have seen a drop of 6-8 lakh passengers daily, while earnings too have dropped by over ₹1 crore due to the ongoing Maratha morcha,” said a BEST official.

Things took a violent turn on August 31, when a bus on route 201 was vandalised and passengers assaulted by the Maratha protestors, at the Juhu bus depot. By the time the police arrived, the protesters and two passengers involved in the dispute had fled.

Taxis too remain elusive in South Mumbai as 60% aggregator cabs are not plying to areas where roads are shut and the protest is underway.