Within days after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government assumed office at the Centre, a senior leader of the Ajit-led NCP -- which is a part of the NDA – on Tuesday upped the ante on the reservations issue and demanded 5 per cent quota to Muslims in education as passed by the Bombay High Court.

Alluding to the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, another constituent of the NDA, Maharashtra NCP vice president Saleem Sarang wondered:  “If Telugu Desam Party (TDP) can declare a 4 per cent reservation to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh, what is stopping Maharashtra government from implementing the 5 per cent reservation to Muslims in education which has been allowed by the High Court?”

Making a strong case for “political reservations” to Muslims, Sarang said in a message put out on “X”: “Muslims vote but they don't get an opportunity to be voted! We could see a steep decline in Muslim candidacy by almost all the parties. Is this a conspiracy to keep Muslims deliberately away from political leadership? It seems along with educational reservation, Muslims must demand political reservation as well”

In a statement released to the media separately in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year, Sarang said: “None of the big parties fielded any Muslim candidate. There is not a single Muslim MP from Maharashtra. There is not a single Muslim minister in the Narendra Modi government”.

Sarang -- whose party NCP (Ajit Pawar) is one of the three constituents in the Eknath Shinde-led MahaYuti government in Maharashtra -- said that the Maharashtra government had not yet implemented the 5 percent reservation in education for the Muslim community approved by the Bombay High Court.-

“When the erstwhile Democratic Front government comprising Congress and undivided NCP was in power, the reservations had been extended to Muslims,” Sarang said.

"In matters relating to education, the Muslim community is still backward due to economic constraints and figures speaks for themselves. As many as 75 percent of children aged six to 14 miss out on education within the first few years of school. Only two to three per cent of children receive higher education,” Sarang said.

Maintaining that the proportion of Muslims below the poverty line was also high, Sarang said: “Drug addiction and criminality are increasing among uneducated, unemployed Muslim youth. The root cause of all this is education”.

Not given to mincing words, Sarang said:  “No matter which government comes to power in Maharashtra, no one takes the issue of reservation for Muslim community seriously and does not implement this reservation approved by the court, it is disgraceful! It seems that every party uses Muslims only to get votes in elections. But no one seems to be fighting for the rights of Muslims”.