Strong voices rise within Maha Yuti against Maratha reservation

Mumbai: The Eknath Shinde-led Maha Yuti government may have widened the scope of issuance of Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community, so that relatives can also avail of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quotas in absence of a blanket reservation.

However, it seems that within not everyone within the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP combine is happy with Shinde's quick capitulation to Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil's demands.

After veteran OBC leader and state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, senior BJP leader and Union Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Minister Narayan Rane, who is a Maratha himself, had spoken out against the decision.

In the notification issued by the Maharashtra government on Republic Day, Jan 26 night, the government defined ‘sage-soyare’ - Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree’ - would include relatives of an applicant’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and in earlier generations forming out of marriages within the same caste.”

Rane said that he does not agree with the decision of the government.

“I do not agree with the decision taken by the state government. It would be an encroachment on the (reservation of) OBCs and could lead to an unrest in Maharashtra and dissatisfaction… It will lead to suppression of the Maratha community that has a historical legacy and it will also be an encroachment on the OBCs,” said Rane, a former Chief Minister and ex-Leader of Opposition.

Rane is expected to address a press conference in Mumbai on Monday to explain his point in detail.

It may be mentioned in February 2014, when Rane was in the Congress and part of the Democratic Front government, he had headed a committee and submitted a report to the government then headed by Prithviraj Chavan recommending reservation to Marathas.

Bhujbal, a former Deputy Chief Minister, who is the President of Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad, has vehemently opposed and is holding a series of meetings over Sunday and Monday to chart the future course of action.

Bhujbal has said that the notification amounts to giving backdoor entry to Marathas into the OBC reservation which would dilute the quota.