Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will convene a meeting of leaders of all parties in Mumbai on Saturday to discuss the ongoing agitation demanding reservation in education and jobs for the Maratha community.
“We will try and come up with a solution to the issue of Maratha reservation,” Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said on Friday, according to PTI. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the chief minister at his cabinet colleague Vinod Tawde’s house on Thursday night which was attended by Patil and other Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, including Girish Mahajan, Subhash Deshmukh, and the party’s state unit chief Raosaheb Danve.
Danve said the BJP government in the state was committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community and has passed an ordinance to the effect. “However, the court had put a stay on the government’s decision,” Danve said, adding that the state will submit a report on the Backward Classes Commission to the court and request it to decide on the matter soon.
Danve claimed that the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party had “dilly-dallied” over the issue for years, but the present government has taken steps to provide reservation to the Marathas.
Six MLAs in the state have offered to resign over the reservation row.
Protests erupted in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Palghar, Raigad and Satara on Monday, leading to the death of a constable and two protestors. The shutdown was called off on Wednesday after Fadnavis said the government has taken cognisance of protests and is ready to talk to the Maratha community.
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