The Mumbai Police on Saturday detained BJP workers who were protesting in support of restoring reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local governing bodies in Mulund area.
The Maharashtra unit of the BJP on Saturday held ''chakka jam'' protest across the state to press for its demand of restoring reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in local governing bodies.
The party had earlier announced that it would hold agitation at 1,000 locations across the state. In Mumbai, under the leadership of Ashish Shelar and Manoj Kotak, BJP held a protest near Mulund toll plaza.
Leader of Opposition in the Council Pravin Darekar took part in an agitation in Thane, due to which the road connecting the city with Mumbai got blocked for some time. Another BJP leader and former state minister Girish Mahajan and MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha held a protest outside Mantralaya, the state secretariat in Mumbai, over the issue.
Former minister Pankaja Munde, who led a protest in Pune, said,"the government failed to get OBC reservation, which is necessary for the community''s uplift,” she said.
"We are demanding that the OBC reservation be restored and till then no elections should be held. We want the government to approach the Election Commission along with us with a demand to postpone elections," she said.
"If the elections are held without the OBC reservation, then we will resort to bigger protests. This ‘chakka jam’ protest is just a trailer," she added.
The BJP-Shiv Sena government in 2019 had allotted political reservation to OBCs in local governing bodies, but in March this year, the Supreme Court had read it down.