Fasting quota activist Manoj Jarange on Monday sought reservation for the Maratha community in entire Maharashtra and not in specific regions and warned the ongoing agitation will be ratcheted up if the demand was not fulfilled by the state government.
Jarange appealed to Shinde and his deputies to come together and resolve the issue of Maratha quota, an emotive issue which has been dominating the state's political discourse for the last few months.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange on Thursday ended his nine-day-old indefinite fast, but warned of a bigger agitation if no action was taken in two months on giving reservation benefits to the community.
NCP led by the former Union minister said the Election Commission had sought its response to a petition filed by Ajit Pawar, and the party submitted its "preliminary response" to the poll panel on September 7.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to make it clear whether it is ready to provide reservation to the entire Maratha community and why it needs more time in granting quota to it.
State-run bus services have been completely suspended in five Marathwada districts while curfew and Internet shut-down have been imposed in parts of Beed where the houses of political leaders were targeted by protesters.
Shinde also said directives will be issued to give the Kunbi caste certificates to blood relatives of a person who already possesses similar documents.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
Khotkar, who is from Jalna district, was a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led government that was in power between 2014-19.
As the 40-day deadline he set before the Maharashtra government to implement Maratha reservation came to an end, activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday launched his indefinite fast to press for the demand for quota to the community.
Wadettiwar said he was not opposed to the idea of increasing the overall quota ceiling to accommodate the Maratha community.
Shinde announced that his government is committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Thursday that spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had given him blessings and told him that he would succeed when he and other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs were camping in a Guwahati hotel.
Any move of the present government to appease the Marathas may boomerang. Eknath Shinde is a worried man with the agitation not having an easy solution, notes Ramesh Menon.
He had resigned from his post as a deputy leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Khotkar told reporters in Jalna.
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
Leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra slammed Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's statement that a meeting between a delegation of Maharashtra MPs and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue would not make any difference to the border dispute.
The India meteorological department has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and other coastal districts in Maharashtra, stating it is very likely that 'heavy to very heavy' rainfall will occur in isolated places in this region.
Mumbai reported 5,515 new cases, its highest daily rise till now, while the nearby Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation reported 1,020 cases, its highest rise so far.
Maharashtra's opening batsman Vijay Zol has smashed an unbeaten 451 against Assam in a Under-19 Cooch Behar cricket match in Nasik.
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday gave another breather to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, staying his arrest till the next hearing. Earlier, on February 4, the court had stayed Raj's arrest till February 17. Raj's lawyer argued in front the bench comprising Justice A V Potdar that his client was arrested by the Mumbai police from Ratnagiri, when a state transport bus was pelted with stones in Badnapur tehsil of Jalna district.
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court on Wednesday stayed the arrest warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray till January 4, 2010.The Badnapur JMFC court had issued the arrest warrant against Raj in connection to a stone pelting incident at a bus near Hirvi Phata in Badnapur of Jalna district on October 21 in 2008. Justice S S Shinde of the Aurangabad bench passed the order and advocate Sagar Ladda appeared for Raj.
Terming the incident of the violent crowds chasing policemen as "unprecedented", Prasad said a senior police official was badly beaten up.
The elder son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray will become the first member of the clan ever to contest an election.
The probe agency told the court that Andure is one of the two assailants who shot at Dabholkar at Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena leaders who were sworn in today during the expansion of Devendra Fadnavis ministry include some who have been ministers in the past and some new faces.
Noting that Lok Sabha elections are around the corner and only one session of Parliament remains, he asked the government to bring an ordinance.
"Shreehari Aney has submitted his resignation to the governor. Whether to accept it or not, is his (governor's) prerogative," an official from the governor's office said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday allocated portfolios to the twenty-member council of ministers, including 10 of the Shiv Sena, who were inducted into his expanded cabinet.
Terming as a "scam of words" the charges against her, Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde, under fire for alleged irregularities in purchase of items worth Rs 206 crore, on Wednesday said that similar items were procured at a higher price during the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party rule.
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