Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Maratha movement leader Manoj Jarange-Patil will field candidates on all the 288 Maharashtra legislative assembly seats, likely to go to polls later this year, if “sage-soyare” notification to get reservation for the community under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) is not implemented immediately.
The term sage-soyare means biological and marital relations. The inclusion of this term in the notification and subsequent implementation would mean a significant section of the Maratha community would stand to gain reservation benefits by declaring themselves as those from the Kunbi caste. The only condition in this draft notification is that the marriage will have to be within the same Kunbi caste to become a beneficiary.
“If the sage-soyare notification is not implemented and if the State government doesn’t agree that Marathas and Kunbis are the same castes, then I will surely field 288 candidates across religions and castes in the upcoming legislative assembly elections,” Mr. Jarange-Patil reasserted.
Earlier this year, he had spoken about having 288 candidates irrespective of their caste or religious background and having as many as eight deputy chief ministers from each of the communities such as dalit, lingayat, dhangar, muslim, etc.
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Founder and President Prakash Ambedkar had sought an alliance for Lok Sabha elections with Mr. Jarange-Patil, but it did not take shape. A few weeks ago, Mr. Ambedkar in a public statement had offered to have an alliance with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for Maharashtra legislative assembly election, a call on which is yet to be taken. On the other hand, Mr. Jarange-Patil had not aligned either MVA or Mahayuti for Lok Sabha elections.
He made his intentions public while talking to media persons after appearing in one of Pune’s courts. Back in 2013, his organisation Shivba Sanghatana had held a play and payment for the same was allegedly not honoured. This led to the filing of a fraud case at Pune’s Kothrud police station and subsequently, the court issued an arrest warrant, which he honoured on Friday. The warrant has been cancelled as he showed up at the court and a penalty of ₹500 has been imposed on him.
On multiple occasions, last year, Mr. Jarange-Patil had hit headlines for going on fasts unto death to press for reservation for the Marathas in government employment and education space. His agitation had rattled the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra over the sensitive nature of the issue and vote bank politics.
