Manoj Jarange-Patil takes agitation to Mumbai for first time in 2 years

He has launched his agitation on 29 August 2023 in Antarwali Sarathi in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district, however, never managed to camp in Mumbai except for on one occasion on January 2024 when he took his agitation to the satellite township of Navi Mumbai.

Mumbai: After nearly two years of constant agitation and criss-crossing Maharashtra, Manoj Jarange-Patil has managed to take the battle to Mumbai for the first time putting the financial capital’s security apparatus in a tizzy and the first big challenge for the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maha Yuti government.

The Mumbai Police has allowed Jarange-Patil to conduct the agitation for one day on Friday, however, has put in several riders including a cap of 5,000 persons and limit on number of vehicles.

However, Jarange-Patil has questioned the time period of one day and hoped that the Bombay High Court and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will render justice.

Meanwhile, both the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government as well as the protestors expressed their willingness to talk and take things ahead.

Jarange-Patil has launched his agitation on 29 August 2023 in Antarwali Sarathi in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district, however, never managed to camp in Mumbai except for on one occasion on January 2024 when he took his agitation to the satellite township of Navi Mumbai.

Jarange-Patil has come to Mumbai on a few occasions in the past two years to present his demands but this is for the time time that he is bringing a huge entourage of protesters to the state capital and undertake a sit in and hunger-strike at the historic Azad Maidan barely a few kilometres away from Mantralaya and Vidhan Bhavan Complex, the seat of power.

“What will happen in (one day of protest)…please allow us permission to hold our protest till our demands are met,” Jarange-Patil told reporters in Shivneri in Pune district, the birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

In an appeal to Fadnavis, he said: “You have a chance to win the hearts of the Marathas. Please help out the poor people, farmers…please change your stand…there is a chance…there is a big opportunity…we are ready for talks…we are coming.”

To a question, Jarange-Patil said that it was wrong to say that he is not ready for talks. “We are coming to Mumbai…for what?…talks.”

Meanwhile, Water Resources Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota, said that the government is ready for talks. “There seems to be some miscommunication,” he said, after Jarange-Patil’s supporters said that the government is not keen for talks.

“We are ready for talks…today, tomorrow…we have never said no to talks,” the minister said.

In the letter issued by Azad Maidan police station, Jarange-Patil was told that the police permission would be granted for only one day at a time and that it would not be given for Saturdays, Sundays, or government holidays. “A maximum of 5,000 people can participate in the protest in the designated space of 7,000 square meters at Azad Maidan. Since other protesters also have permission for the same day, their rights must not be affected,” the letter states, adding that a protest march would not be allowed and that permission would be required for the use of microphones, speakers, or any noise-making devices. The police have cautioned not to disturb traffic or make statements that may disturb peace or hurt sentiments.

The demand of Jarange-Patil is the implementation of reservation of Marathas as Kunbis, a sub-caste covered under OBC and the the formal notification of the ‘sage-soyare’, a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree', which widens the scope of the quota.

Meanwhile, the Azad Maidan has been turned into a fortress with hundreds of police personnel and plainclothesmen at the protest venue located off the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.

Over the past two years, Jarange-Patil had led eight agitations but this is the first big agitation that would be held in Mumbai.

Quota activist dies of heart attack

A Maratha reservation activist from Beed, who was part of the agitation-march of Manoj Jarange-Patil, died of a heart attack in Pune district on Thursday. The deceased was identified as Satish Deshmukh, a resident of Vadgaon in Kaij tehsil of Beed district. He died when the entourage had halted in Junnar in Pune district. Deshmukh's body is being taken back to his native.