Congress OBC leaders threaten to agitate against Centre if fails to submit empirical data

Aurangabad, July 3:

The state president of Congress's OBC Cell Bhanudas Mali today has threatened of launching an indefinite agitation under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahu Gandhi, if the union Government does not provide OBC's empirical data so as to restore the political reservations to them in local self-government, within three months.

Mali was speaking to the local media persons after concluding the convention organised at Gandhi Bhavan by the OBC Cell of Aurangabad City and District Congress Committee.

" The empirical data was prepared during the regime of the past prime minister Manmohan Singh. It has been given to the Rohini Commission. It will create differences amongst OBCs. If the empirical data could have been submitted in the Supreme Court, then the political reservation for OBC would not have been affected," replied Mali in response to a question.

He said, " On one hand, the government jobs are being reduced gradually and privatisation is promoted aggressively and on other hand the prices are skyrocketing and to divert the attention of people from it, they are creating conflicts between two communities and factions like Maratha versus OBC. This is the agenda of RSS which is being implemented through Narendra Modi. Earlier, OBC was excluded from the jobs and now from the politics." There were 36 IAS officers of OBCs who were not absorbed in the jobs. As a result, three of them had committed suicide, pin-pointed Mali.

Speakers on OBC

In the convention held before the press conference, the Congress's district president Kalyan Kale and Ibrahim Pathan said the Congress party had taken proper care of OBCs till today, while Adv Sandeepan Narvate suggested the party honour OBC leaders by bringing them closer. BJP is hatching the conspiracy to scrap the reservation, he alleged. The state executive president (OBC Cell) Sangeeta Talmale appealed to the OBC women to be aware of their rights and agitate for them. Mali also made valuable guidance to the audience.

The president of Aurangabad District Congress (OBC cell) Atish Pitale, city president Anil Malode, Congress president Hisham Osmani and Lily Jadhav also spoke at the convention. Dr. Pawan Dongre conducted the proceedings. ZP president Meena Shelke, city president (women cell) Seema Thorat, state general secretary Saroj Maslage Patil, Santosh Rasalkar, Ravindra Kale, and the office-bearers of Frontal Organisations were present on the occasion.