Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil asks villagers to go on fast

Maratha leader Manoj Jarange Patil said he would intensify the agitation seeking reservation for the Maratha community if the Maharashtra government failed to positively respond to the demand by Saturday evening.

“I am asking the government to take a decision by 6pm today, if not, we would be preparing for a bigger agitation in the state from October 31, which the government would be hard pressed to handle,” Patil said earlier on Saturday. “The government’s non responsiveness is sending out a message to our community that they are being cheated. Our community is getting angry.”

Patil, who is observing an indefinite fast, also asked his community members to go on an indefinite fast in their villages from Sunday. “If any one of those who would be doing an indefinite fast get ill then the responsibility for this would lie squarely with the chief minister and deputy chief ministers,” he said.


Meanwhile, the Maratha community anger could be seen cutting across party lines. On Saturday, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar cancelled a meet in Baramati after the Maratha Kranti Morcha, an amalgam of Maratha groups, threatened to disrupt the programme.

A day earlier, Nationalist Congress Party president’s grand nephew Rohit Pawar, who is an MLA from Karjat Jamkhed constituency, scrapped his Yuva Sangharsha Yatra after Maratha protestors pressed him to do so.