After a violent clamour by Maratha organisations for reservations in jobs and education rattled the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation for the past four days, Maharashtra on Thursday witnessed severe aftershocks in the form of resignations by four more MlAs, a belligerent display of one-upmanship by influential Minister Pankaja Munde and a conditional threat by some Independent MlAs to withdraw their support to the State Government.
On a day when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held day-long meetings with leaders of various political hues and also Maratha leaders to devise ways to tide over somewhat of a crisis in the State, four more MlAs — including two from the ruling BJP — upped the ante by announcing resignations over the contentious Maratha reservations issue.
Being seen as more of posturing indulged in by the elected representatives, BJP MlAs from Nashik district Dr Rahul Hire and Seema Hire handed over their resignations to Maratha Kranti Morcha convenors. Congress MlA from Mangal Veda constituency in Solapur district Bharat Bhalke said he was putting in his papers to Press for the reservations to Maratha, backward Dhanghar community and Muslims, while NCP MlA from Mohol (SC) constituency Ramesh Kadam also announced his resignation over the Maratha reservations issue. Reports said that BJP’s Aurangabad unit chief Eknath Jadhav had decided to resign from the party post.
With fresh resignations, the total number of MlAs putting in their papers has gone up to six. Earlier on Wednesday, two MlAs Harshavardhan Jadhav and Bahusaheb Chikatgaonkar belonging to the ruling Shiv Sena and the Opposition NCP respectively had resigned from their elected posts.
Meanwhile, in a dramatic development that set the cat among pigeons, State Rural Development Minister and late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde said that had the Maratha reservations file been lying on her table, she would not have delayed even one minute in announcing reservations to the Marathas.
Talking to the leaders of Maratha Kranti Morcha who had undertaken an agitation for reservations in her home town of Parli in Beed district, Pankaja said: “I have come to hear your anger and pain over the delay in the grant of reservations to Marathas I am not trying to impress you. But, I swear in the name of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji and tell you that if the Maratha reservations file was lying on my table, I would not have delayed even one minute in giving reservations to Marathas. let me assure you that I would be your ambassador in crusading for the Maratha reservations cause”.
Alluding to the suicide by Maratha youth Kakasaheb Shinde, who jumped from a bridge into Godavari river near Aurangabad on Sunday, Pankaja said, “like they say, one Maratha is equivalent to one lakh Marathas. Now that one Maratha has committed suicide, cannot we construe that one lakh Marathas have ended their livesIJ”
Pankaja also assured the Maratha delegation that she would take up the Maratha reservation issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Meanwhile, I will request the Chief Minister to withdraw all the case registered against the Maratha activists during the agitation that ended yesterday,” she said.
Fadnavis, who was to have gone to Sangli in western Maharashtra to campaign for his party candidates in the local municipal corporation elections, cancelled all his programmes to hold parleys with the leaders from different political parties and Maratha leaders as part of his effort to hammer out a solution to the Maratha reservations’ crisis. He was also scheduled to meet Maratha Ministers and MlAs from his own party on Thursday night to seek their views to resolve the issue.
Senior State BJP minister Chandrakant Patil also interacted with people from Maratha and other communities during the day to elicit their views on the Maratha reservations issue.
In a related development, independent MlAs supporting the BJP-led saffron alliance Government threw their weight behind the Chief Minister and said in the event of the BJP’s Central leadership replacing Fadnavis from the post, they would withdraw their support to the State Government.
Talking to mediapersons, Independent MlA Ravi Rana - who claims to enjoy the support of other independent MlAs in the State Assembly - said, “Fadnavis has been doing a lot of development work. He is a capable of devising ways to give reservations to Marathas. If the BJP’s Central leadership replaces, then all the independent MlAs would withdraw their support to the BJP-led Government in the State.
Apart from Rana, five more Independent MlAs including Ganpat Gaikwad, Hiralal Choudhary, Kisanrao Jadhav and Madhavrao Fad, have warned the BJP that they would withdraw their support to the State Government, if the ruling party’s central leadership chose to replace Fadnavis as the Chief Minister.