Uddhav Thackeray to meet PM Modi tomorrow to discuss Maratha reservation

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss several issues, including Maratha reservation, home minister Dilip Patil said on Monday. “A delegation of Maharashtra government led by CM Uddhav Thackeray and deputy CM Ajit Pawar will meet PM Modi in Delhi tomorrow. They will discuss issues like Maratha reservation, OBC reservation and cyclone relief,” Dilip Patil was quoted as saying by new agency ANI.

Last month, Uddhav Thackeray wrote to Prime Minister Modi requesting him to take steps to declare the Maratha community in the state as Socially and Educationally Backward (SEBC) to enable them to claim reservation in education and government jobs.

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"The Judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench (comprising of five Judges) of the Supreme Court on May 5, 2021, has given me this occasion to write to you with the earnest request that appropriate steps be taken at the earliest to grant reservation to the Maratha community from my State, albeit in accordance with the law, to the minimum extent of 12 per cent in Education and 13 per cent in Public Employment," Uddhav Thackeray said in this letter to PM Modi.

Uddhav Thackeray’s visit to the national capital comes after Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana said in its editorial on May 31 that the battle for Maratha reservation will be fought in Delhi. It said it becomes necessary to knock on the doors of Delhi on the issue of the Maratha reservation. The editorial referring to the Supreme Court's observation and said only the central government has the right to make such law regarding the reservation.

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"The collision will prove to be decisive. To destabilise the politics of Maharashtra, the opposition will use the issue of the Maratha reservation as a weapon, then they will have to stop it in time," it said, according to ANI.

The Supreme Court on May 5 struck down the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the Maratha community brought in by the Maharashtra government in 2018, saying it exceeded the 50 per cent cap imposed earlier. A five-judge constitution bench said in its judgment said that that people from the Maratha community cannot be declared as educationally and socially backward community to bring them within the reserved category.

On Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati announced that a statewide agitation demanding reservation in education and jobs for the Maratha community will be launched from the memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji in Kolhapur in Maharashtra on June 16.

“I have decided not to stay silent until the Maratha community gets its reservation. The state government has done nothing since the ultimatum was issued. The agitation is now certain. Our first rally (morcha) will be organised at Shahu Samadhi Sthal, (resting place of Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj) in Kolhapur,” Chhatrapati said.