The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
She blamed the media for linking her and state Health Minister Nitin Patel's visit to Delhi, suggesting that a change of leadership in Gujarat was imminent.
Around 20 policemen, including eight officers, were injured in stone-pelting by protesters at Kopar Khairane and Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai.
President of Phule Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti CP Saini said if the state government fails to fulfil their demands, they will block the Jaipur-Delhi highway.
The Patel quota leader Friday walked out of Lajpore jail in Surat after nine months of confinement, vowing to continue the stir.
An OBC leader, Thakor, who has good oratory skills, will have to take along all factions in the state unit while taking on the well-organised BJP which has been in power in the state from 1998.
The sub-quota scheme may now lead to a ganging up of non-Vanniyars in individual constituencies against the Vanniyars just as in the past, such ganging up against SC-ST candidates was seen in the non-quota constituencies, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said the all-party meeting held earlier in the day decided that reservation should be given to the Maratha community without tampering with the existing quotas of other communities in the state.
The opposition parties on Sunday slammed the move to hire public servants through lateral entry, claiming it will snatch reservations from SCs, STs and OBCs, but the Bharatiya Janata Party hit back stating the National Democratic Alliance government was bringing transparency to this mode of recruitment started by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.
Pawar said he has all the respect for the OBC community, but he does not want to hide the caste he was born in.
Medical college students in Bangalore on Saturday took out a protest march against the Union government's move to enhance OBC quotas in central educational institutions.
The police action came when an estimated 400 agitators moved from the scheduled venue of protest at Jantar Mantar triggering a scuffle between the two sides.
Patel's elevation and his subsequent projection as chief ministerial face -- he is the first from the Kadva Patidar sub-group to be the chief minister -- is key to BJP's plans to woo the Kadva Patidar community, which some political observers feel, has drifted away from the party.
Kumar said that while the rise in percentage of population of the deprived castes has led to increase in the quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs from 50 to 65 per cent, his government also planned to undertake a number of welfare measures for the benefit of "94 lakh families", which according to the survey lived in abject poverty.
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.
Do you think there is a deliberate attempt to malign the agitations?
The protesters are demanding five per cent reservation to Gujjars, Raika-Rebari, Gadia Luhar, Banjara and Gadaria communities in government jobs and educational institutions.
'There are legions of unemployed degree holders across rural and semi-urban belts in Maharashtra. Now, they aren't finding brides.' 'This issue has now snowballed into a social crisis. In 2014 and 2019, they had voted for the BJP.'
As per the will, Hardik has Rs 50,000 in his bank account, of which Rs 20,000 will go to his parents and the rest to a Panjrapole near his native village in Gujarat.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday named former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for next month's assembly elections in Gujarat.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Patel said when the Congress decided to postpone its rally, earlier scheduled for February 28, following the terror attack in Pulwama last month, the PM was busy addressing gatherings across the country.
Expressing displeasure over the Gujarat Congress's "style of functioning", party leader Hardik Patel on Wednesday claimed that he was sidelined in the state unit and the leadership is not willing to utilise his skills.
The Rajasthan high court on Friday asked the state government to constitute a committee led by a retired judge to look into the quota demands of the Gujjars and to find a solution to the problem arising out of their ongoing agitation.The committee was also asked to take up the matter with the Gujjar community to defuse the agitation and the situation arising out of it.The division bench was acting on a public interest litigation on the Gujjar agitation.
Hardik and 50 members of his Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti got their heads shaved as a mark of protest.
Miscreants had also set fire to a police outpost.
The protesting wrestlers will not face any sort of vendetta politics and they will get the required support from the new federation, outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said on Thursday after the panel backed by him emerged victorious in the keenly-followed elections.
Giving this information at Chandigarh, a government spokesman said that more companies of the paramilitary forces have been demanded by the state.
Jat leaders have blamed Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for not fulfilling their quota demands for which they launched a massive stir last year.
Firebrand quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel was on Monday arrested twice, first on the charge of insulting the national flag and the second time on the charge of sedition.
Tension persisted on Friday in violence-hit Gujarat which has been rocked by the Patel quota reservation stir even as curfew was lifted from many cities and some parts of Ahmedabad and no major incident reported since on Thursday.
'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.'
Raising the pitch against the quota bill, thousands of Uttar Pradesh government employees on Monday marched down the streets of Lucknow, expressing their ire against Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. The agitators blamed them for pushing the constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament for introducing reservation in promotions in all government jobs.
The decision came in the wee hours after two back-to-back General Body Meetings of the medicos, which saw sharp divisions among them on the future course of the strike that has paralysed medical services in the capital.
Soon after Hardik Patel quit the Congress on Wednesday, the opposition party alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has 'lured' the Patidar leader by promising to get cases against him withdrawn and has 'scripted' his resignation letter.
"The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?" the minister said.
The activist claimed that state minister Uday Samant phoned him in the morning to assure that the chief minister and the deputy CMs were committed to granting reservation.
A dedicated party worker, who made his way up in the state politics from the municipality level, Patel was a surprise choice for the top post when the BJP decided to effect a regime change, replacing the entire ministry a year before the elections.
With an eye on upcoming assembly elections after the drubbing in Lok Sabha polls, Maharashtra's Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government will take a decision next week on the Rane committee's recommendation for 20 per cent quota for Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions.
Despite various political leaders, including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing protesting Jats to maintain calm and peace, the incidents of violence and arson continued during the night in various parts of the state, crippling the normal life in worst affected places like Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar.
Curfew has been lifted from Surat city after no untoward incident was reported from there since Wednesday night.
