An all-party meeting called by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was held on Friday over the OBC reservation issue in the local body elections.
Besides Thackeray, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Leader of Opposition in state assembly Devendra Fadnavis, Praveen Darekar, Ashok Chavan, Nana Patole, Chhagan Bhujbal, Eknath Shinde, Jayant Patil and others were present in this meeting held at Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai.
After the meeting, Fadnavis said, "Today, we have once again made a request in the meeting that till the OBCs do not get a reservation in local bodies polls, elections should not be held. The state government should immediately give orders to the Backward Commission to submit the empirical data. Elections should not be conducted until the data is collected."
Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said that all the parties unanimously decided that elections cannot be held until empirical data is collected.
Maharashtra Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said, "We have also asked for empirical data from the Centre. The state government will also collect data in the next 2 to 3 months. The elections cannot be postponed for a long time. But for the next 3 to 4 months, the election should be postponed till the empirical data comes."
Notably, the Supreme Court had discontinued OBC reservation in local body elections and had asked the state to complete all requirements before allowing the OBC reservation in local bodies.
The Other Backward Classes (OBC) had lost their political reservations in the local bodies of Maharashtra comprising of municipal corporations, municipal councils, zilla parishads, gram panchayats, etc.
This comes after the Supreme Court rejected the state government's review petition concerning reservation to the OBCs.
The top court also observed that the reservation in the favour of the OBC in local bodies should not result in exceeding the 50 per cent cap in reservation quota.
( With inputs from ANI )
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