Manoj Jarange-Patil addresses the gathering during the stir.
Credit: X
Mumbai: The five-day-old crisis arising out of the Maratha reservation demand seems to be over with Manoj Jarange-Patil saying "we have won" after the government decided to issue GRs on implementation of Hyderabad gazetteers which states Marathas are Kunbis.
However, Jarange-Patil said he would spray gulal only after seeing the GR - and is continuing to camp in the Azad Maidan.
For the Maratha reservation issue, the relevance of Hyderabad Gazette comes from the fact that the Marathwada region of present-day Maharashtra was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State during the Nizam era.
A delegation of the Maharashtra government headed by Water Resources Minister Radhakrishna Vike-Patil, who is head of the Cabinet sub-committee on Maratha community issues, accompanied by ministers Uday Samant, Manikrao Kokate and Shivendra Raje Bhosle, a descendent of iconic Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj met Jarange-Patil at his camp in Azad Maidan in prince of thousands of protesters.
As soon as Jarange-Patil declared victory slogans like - ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki jai’, ‘Jai Shivray, Jai Shivray’, ‘ek Maratha, lakh Maratha’, ‘Patil, Patil, Patil’, ‘Manoj Dada tum aage bado, hum tumhare saath hai’ - rend the air.
“We will spray gulal once the GR is issued,” the chief campaigner said.
The final details of the agreement between Jarange-Patil and the government is awaited.