'When the chief minister saw how Manoj Jarange Patil had successfully held the state government hostage to his whims, Eknath Shinde knew he had a very clear chance of enamouring himself to these Maratha agitators by accepting Patil's demands.'
Dhananjay Deshmukh, brother of slain Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, climbed a village water tank on Monday and threatened to jump alleging that information about the investigation was not shared with the family. He demanded that the accused in the extortion case linked to sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh's murder be booked under murder charges. Family members of the slain sarpanch and Opposition leaders are demanding that state minister Dhananjay Munde's aide Walmik Karad, arrested in a related extortion case, be booked for murder. Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village, was abducted, tortured, and murdered on December 9. Preliminary investigation suggests that the sarpanch had tried to thwart an extortion bid on an energy firm operating a windmill project in the region. After climbing down the water tank, Dhananjay told reporters that he trusted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' assurance on the probe. He further said his agitation was not a drama but a serious yearning for justice for his brother.
Thousands of people gathered in Maharashtra's Beed city on Saturday to protest against the brutal murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh as even MLAs from ruling parties demanded the sacking of Nationalist Congress Party minister Dhananjay Munde.
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.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday underlined the necessity of any reservation standing legal scrutiny as he listed key measures undertaken by the state government for the Maratha community.
The disclosure by Chhagan Bhujbal that he resigned as a minister last November has put a focus on the Maratha quota tightrope the Eknath Shinde-led government is walking amid restlessness in OBCs, with Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray claiming Bhujbal and the Bharatiya Janata Party are hand in glove.
Hingoli MP Hemant Patil submitted his resignation to the Lok Sabha secretariat in New Delhi on Monday, while Nashik MP Hemant Godse sent his resignation letter to CM Shinde.
'It is now the government's duty to find a way out of this impasse without hurting interests of any sections of Maharashtrian people.'
Jarange, aged around 40, has been holding the hunger protest in Jalna district's Antarwali Sarati village since August 29.
Several legislators cutting across party lines in Maharashtra on Thursday staged an agitation outside the Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai, in support of the demand for reservation to the Maratha community.
'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.'
Activists Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare, who have been sitting on a hunger strike at Wadigodri village in Jalna district since June 13, did not allow doctors to check their health or administer intravenous fluids.
'Over the last 65 years the state has seen majority of Maratha chief ministers and cabinet ministers, even Union cabinet ministers.' 'The Marathas have always wielded disproportionately significant political, commercial and social influence in the state and yet they are asking for reservations today.'
Owaisi said 324 farmers have died by suicide in "Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) division", but no one is talking about it.
A delegation of the Maharashtra government, comprising ministers, on Tuesday failed to convince Manoj Jarange, whose hunger strike for Maratha quota entered the 8th day, to withdraw his protest.
Before going to the police, Karad posted a video on social media, announcing that he would surrender and claimed he was being linked to the murder case due to political vendetta.
The situation is currently under control, Beed Superintendent of Police Nandkumar Thakur told PTI.
Patil said Shinde during his Dussehra speech at Azad Maidan in Mumbai assured the community of reservation.
The BJP has again fielded Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar who humbled Ashok Chavan in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by over 40,000 votes.
He alleged that the MVA allies were refusing to consider the factor of Maratha activist Manoj Jarange.
Chavan said the Mahayuti and BJP's policy was Viksit Bharat and Viksit Maharashtra, as spelt out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bhujbal, who has strongly opposed the demand to include the Marathas in the other backward classes category for quota benefits, said a new social system is taking shape in Maharashtra which is different from the order envisaged by prominent social reformers.
The Maharashtra police has so far registered 141 cases in connection with the violence during the Maratha quota agitations and arrested 168 persons, state Director General of Police Rajnish Seth said on Wednesday.
As violence broke out, police baton-charged the protesters and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them. Several persons, including 40 police personnel, were injured and more than 15 state transport buses were set ablaze. More than 360 persons were booked in connection with the violence, police said.
Dharashiv, earlier Osmanabad, is among the eight districts that comprise the state's Marathwada region, where activist Manoj Jarange has led an agitation demanding reservation for Marathas in education and government jobs.
The development comes in the wake of an indefinite hunger strike launched by activist Manoj Jarange in Jalna district on Wednesday to demand reservation for the Maratha community.
Beleaguered Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday, days after his close aide Walmik Karad was named as the mastermind in the murder of a village sarpanch and three months after the new Mahayuti government assumed office.
'After Manoj Jarange Patil began his long march towards Mumbai on January 20, he kept increasing his demands and the government meekly surrendered to him.'
If Marathas get blanket Kunbi OBC certificates, there will be no separate identity of the Maratha community in Maharashtra, state minister and senior OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said on Wednesday amid the quota row.
In a veiled warning to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange who has announced a march to Mumbai, Ajit Pawar said nobody will be allowed to take law into his hands.
Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal has launched a veiled attack on party president Ajit Pawar, claiming that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was in favor of his induction in the cabinet. Bhujbal expressed his disappointment and humiliation over his exclusion, alleging that he was treated like a "toy" by the party leadership. He also alleged that Ajit Pawar makes decisions for the NCP like Fadnavis does for the BJP and Eknath Shinde does for the Shiv Sena.
Addressing a Social Unity Conference in Navi Mumbai on Sunday evening, Pawar also criticised the Centre's handling of the ethnic strife in Manipur, which has claimed several lives since last May.
The decision comes a day after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said a government-appointed committee scrutinised 1.72 crore old documents (including those of Nizam-era) and among them, 11,530 records were found where Kunbi caste was mentioned.
Leaders at an all-party meeting on Maratha quota chaired by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday passed a resolution asking activist Manoj Jarange to call off his indefinite fast.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
Raut was referring to the recent war of words between state ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Shambhuraj Desai.
Amid a fresh wave of protests in Maharashtra over the Maratha quota demand, authorities in Dharashiv district of the state on Wednesday started distributing Kunbi caste certificates to the eligible Maratha community members, paving the way for their inclusion in the OBC category.
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.
A Maratha community member from Dharashiv in Maharashtra, who was the first one to be given the Kunbi caste certificate in the district as part of the ongoing survey exercise, has decided to return the document to the authorities, saying he wants all Marathas in the state to be given this benefit.
Bhujbal took a veiled attack at Sharad Pawar for the opposition's boycott of an all-party meeting on the Maratha quota issue.
