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Maratha quota stir: Jarange turns down all-party appeal, issues bigger warning
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange questioned the delay in the implementation of reservation.
Activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Wednesday refused to relent even as leaders at an all-party meeting on the Maratha quota issue passed a resolution asking him to call off his indefinite past. He questioned the government's need for additional time and called for a detailed explanation of their plans to grant reservation to the Maratha community.
"The government says they want time. They should tell us how much time it wants and also tell us what the problem is in giving reservation to the Maratha community," Jarange asserted at the fast venue in Jalna. "They should tell what they are going to do in detail."
"The government should tell why it needs time and whether they are ready to give reservations to the entire Maratha community. Then Marathas will think about it," he added.
The Maratha quota agitation intensified after Jarange started an indefinite hunger strike at his native village Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district on October 25. The protest took a violent turn on Monday after protesters set the houses and offices of MLAs across parties on fire in Beed and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar districts.
An all-party meeting chaired by chief minister Eknath Shinde was held on Wednesday in Mumbai where a resolution was passed asking Jarange to call off his fast. The resolution was signed by Shinde, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, NCP president Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab, Leader of Opposition in the assembly Vijay Wadettiwar (of Congress) and LoP in the legislative council Ambadas Danve, among others.
"The agitation will not stop and I will stop taking water from this evening. They should come and talk till I can speak," Jarange warned.
Earlier on Wednesday, Opposition MLAs called on Speaker Rahul Narvekar and demanded that he convene a special session of the Assembly as soon as possible amid the ongoing Maratha quota protest. They tendered a memorandum to the Speaker seeking a special session of the Assembly for discussions on the quota protest.
