Jalna (Maharashtra), Feb 26 (IANS): After a community backlash and a slight by the Maharashtra government, Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil on Monday evening called off his 17-day long hunger strike at his village Antarvali-Sarati.
He also headed for treatment to a hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar after which he will launch a state-wide tour for Maratha quotas.
The development came a day after he accused Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of allegedly plotting to eliminate him and threatened to march to Mumbai to lay a siege at his official residence.
However, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde intervened and warned Jarange-Patil not to cross his limits and create problems of any kind by politicising the issue.
Jarange-Patil aborted his Mumbai plans, broke off the hunger strike but declared that the agitation to get quotas for Marathas under the ‘Sage-Soyare’ (family bloodline) would continue till its logical end.
This evening, he told media persons that he will get admitted to a hospital for a few days of treatment and then embark on a state-wide tour to fight for the Maratha reservation in jobs and education.
Last week, at a Special Session of Maharashtra Legislature, the state government passed the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024, giving 10 per cent quotas to the Marathas.
Jarange-Patil has stood firm on his demand to declare the Marathas as ‘Kunbi Caste’ and grant them separate quotas from the OBCs category, a formal notification for ‘Sage-Soyare’ after the draft was issued on January 26, and other demands.
Simultaneously, the quotas movement suffered cracks when two of his associates Ajay Maharaj Baraskar and Sangeeta Wankhede turned his strong critics, accused him of working against Marathas’ interests, blackmailing the government by shifting stance, arrogance and losing his ‘mental balance’, among other things.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders also targeted him by saying he was acting as the ‘Trumpeter’ for someone else, hinting at Nationalist Congress Party (SP)'s newly-allotted poll symbol, while ruling NCP Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said come what may, he would not allow Maratha quotas from the OBCs category.