Mumbai: Almost a fortnight after the Opposition boycotted an all-party meeting called by the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government on the Maratha quota issue, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar Monday met with the chief minister, primarily to discuss the issue at a time when Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil has started a fresh round of protests.
This meeting comes a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Pawar “sardar of corruption”, and said that Pawar had institutionalised corruption.
While the focus of the meeting was the Maratha reservation issue, topics such as water resources, milk prices, and pending issues related to sugar mills were also on the table.
The meeting lasted nearly an hour, of which 20 minutes were dedicated to the Maratha reservation issue, according to sources in the NCP (SP) and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
During the meeting, the chief minister discussed the Maratha and Other Backward Classes (OBC) issues with Pawar and apprised him of the situation, an NCP(SP) source told ThePrint.
This meeting comes at a crucial time as Patil resumed his hunger strike on 20 July over the ‘sage-soyare’ clause in the quota.
“I don’t know if the two of them met to solve the issue of Maratha reservation or to instigate communal violence. The two of them don’t have any time to look after Maratha reservation,” Patil told the media.
Earlier, on 9 July, the state government had organised an all-party meeting to address the Maratha reservation issue and the ongoing tension between the Maratha and OBC communities. However, the Opposition, including Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders, did not attend it.
The ruling party blamed Pawar for this boycott, following which senior OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal met with Pawar to discuss the issue.
Bhujbal told the media that Pawar had expressed his intent to discuss the issues of Maratha and OBC discomfort and to find a solution for it.
OBC leader Laxman Hake told reporters in Jalna: “Sharad Pawar should solve the quota issue. He is in fact completely mum over the OBC issue.”
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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