"No invisible power behind me, Maratha community is my strength": Manoj Jarange Patil

There is no invisible power behind me, only the common Maratha community is my strength, said Manoj Jarange-Patil. He openly responded to questions from editorial colleagues during his visit to the Lokmat office in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Monday, displaying transparency and openness.

In response to the question of why Marathas seek reservations within the 50 percent limit, he explained that 50 percent of us have been in OBCs since the beginning. The agricultural community is included in OBC. The livelihood of the Maratha community is based on agriculture. Therefore, the Maratha community from Vidarbha, Khandesh, Konkan, Nashik, and Shevgaon is in OBC as Kunbi. Only the Maratha community in Marathwada and some districts of the rest of Maharashtra are deprived of reservation. The government had taken a month's time to submit evidence from us to grant a reservation. The Justice Sandeep Shinde committee, appointed by the government, received 5,000 pieces of evidence. Therefore, the committee should now stop its work. He questioned what more evidence the government needs and demanded that the state government immediately include the Maratha community in the OBC category.

A Protest Looming After October 24

The community has given the State government 40 days to decide on reservations while breaking the hunger strike at Antarwali Sarathi. This period ends on October 24. He warned that if the government does not decide to grant Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community, the agitation set to begin on October 24 will pose a significant challenge for the government.