Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Mumbai: Quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Wednesday refused to budge on Maratha reservation issue despite a three-hour-long all-party meeting involving the top Maharashtra leadership reassuring and resolving to provide reservation to Marathas without distributing the quota of other categories.
Protests continued across the state, including rasta-roko, which disrupted traffic at several places.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, who presided over the meeting, however, sought some time because of the complex legal and constitutional issues, which Jarange-Patil rejected.
"At the all-party meeting, everyone agreed that the Maratha community should get reservation, it was decided that reservation should be within the framework of the law and without doing injustice to other communities. For this, we need some time, we need to have some patience," Shinde said after the mammoth meeting.
The all party-meet requested Jarange-Patil to withdraw the fast as the government is working on giving reservation.
Jarange-Patil, however, made it clear that he would not withdraw the agitation. "I have been fasting for the past eight days and now the government says it wants more time. Why does it need time? The government should specify," he said.
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