Differences emerge in Maharashtra Cabinet over reservation

Mumbai: At a time when the the ruling BJP and its Maha Yuti partners Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP are not on the same page, the vexed reservation issue involving the Marathas and the Other Backward Classes seems to be leading to differences among senior ministers who are targeting each other.

For Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, addressing the differences seems to be challenging. The fresh rift that emerged is between Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal of NCP and Water Resources Minister (Godavari & Krishna Valleys) Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

While Vikhe-Patil is the head of the Cabinet sub-committee on Maratha community's demand for reservation and its social, educational and economic condition while Bhujbal is a member of the Cabinet sub-committee to expedite socio-economic, educational welfare measures for the OBCs, which is headed by Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule of the BJP.

At the OBC morcha-rally at the Beed district, Bhujbal, a veteran OBC leader and founder-President of All India Mahatma Phule Samta Parishad, hit out at Vikhe Patil.

“Vikhe Patil came here and spread poison everywhere before leaving. We will also not spare him either,” Bhujbal said.

It may be mentioned, when Maratha reservation campaigner Manoj Jarange Patil was undertaking fast unto death at Azad Maidan, Vikhe Patil held negotiations with the agitators leading to the GR on implementation of the Hyderabad Gazetteer for the Marathwada region, where Marathas are registered as Kunbis.

Kunbis, a sub-caste of the Marathas, a predominantly agrarian community, which falls under the ambit of OBCs.

“The OBC reservation is going to be impacted because of the GR,” Bhujbal said in presence of former minister and Parli MLA Dhananjay Munde and OBC leaders Prakash Shendge and Laxman Hake.

“I want to tell BJP….it is because of OBCs that you have won 135-136 MLAs. We are not novices. Control your leaders such as Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. We have supported you this far but things can reverse,” he said and urged the community not to field OBC candidates against each other. “Take Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims along with you and the victory will be yours,” he said.

However, Vikhe-Patil said: "Bhujbal is a senior leader, so I won’t comment much about him. But I believe someone has tried to mislead him….after Diwali, we will call a meeting of the two sub-committees and Justice Sandeep Shinde (Retd), who heads the committee set up by the State government to expedite the process of granting reservation to the Marathas.”