JOIN USMaharashtra's MVA govt not serious on political quota for OBCs: BJP leader Pankaja Munde
BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde has said the Shiv Sena-led MVA government in Maharashtra was not serious about implementing reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local body polls.
She claimed OBC ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government were not doing enough to retain political reservation for the community. The former Maharashtra minister was talking to reporters on Tuesday at the Aurangabad airport before leaving for her hometown Parli in Beed district.
To a question on the OBC quota issue, Munde said, "The state government is saying the local body elections cannot be conducted during the monsoon...the government should utilise this time to focus on OBC reservation. The state was in danger of losing reservation for OBCs (in local bodies) as the government was not serious about retaining political quota for them. Efforts of OBC ministers in this regard were not up to the mark."
The Supreme Court earlier this year rejected the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission’s interim report recommending the restoration of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in local body polls. The court also asked the state government and the SEC not to act on the commission’s recommendations. The BJP recently held an agitation, 'Jalakrosh Morcha', in Aurangabad over water scarcity where Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis was present along with two Union ministers.
Asked about her absence from the stir, Munde said the agitation was organized by local leadership. "I have worked beyond politics on water issues, including Jalyukt Shivar (a water conservation scheme launched by the erstwhile BJP government). Even if I was not there for the agitation, I have close connect with the issue. Many such marches take place. "I am working at the national level...this agitation might have been organized by local people...it seems to be a march of local leaders, so I did not come," the BJP leader said.