Uddhav Thackeray to meet PM Modi on quota for Marathas today

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and deputy CM Ajit Pawar will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the Maratha quota issue and Cyclone Tauktae relief measures.

“They will discuss issues like Maratha and Other Backward Classes reservation and Cyclone Tauktae relief," home minister Dilip Walse Patil told the media in Mumbai on Monday.

Thackeray had written to Modi last month, requesting him to take steps to declare the Maratha community ‘socially and educationally backward’ to enable them to claim reservation in government education and employment after the Supreme Court struck down the law granting such quota as ‘unconstitutional’ as the total reservation exceeded 50%.


The CM held a review meeting on monsoon preparedness with heavy rains forecast for Mumbai and coastal areas of the state between June 9-12. The CM has instructed the local administration to make adequate provisions and extend relief to those staying in low-lying or landslide-prone areas.

In a related development, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday said the Centre must restore 27% political reservation for Other Backward Communities (OBC) in the local self-government.

Adressing a press conference after attending a meeting with leaders of Akhil Bhartiya Mahatma Phule Samta Parishad (ABMPSP), the minister said that OBC community will come out on the roads for their rights if need arises, adding that he will also join chief minister Thackeray for the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and raise the issue.

Bhujbal further said that he will also ask chief ministers of other states to raise the issue as the matter concerns the whole of OBC community across the country.

He added that due to the cancellation of political reservations, 56,000 posts will be snatched away from the OBC communities in Maharashtra alone.