Satara: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday said that MNS president Raj Thackeray should have sought all details concerning the Maratha quota before targeting him over the issue.
Talking to reporters here, Shinde said Thackeray should have also asked why the reservation given to the Maratha community when Devendra Fadnavis was the CM from 2014-19 was struck down by the Supreme Court. The legislation had stood the legal test in the High Court.
“He (Thackeray) should have gathered all the information,” said Shinde, who was in Dare village in Satara district on the occasion of the ongoing Ganesh festival. Shinde’s office said he was expected to return to Mumbai by Sunday night.
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On Saturday, Thackeray had said only Shinde could explain everything about the Maratha agitation and the reservation issue.
“If you want to know why Manoj Jarange has returned, ask Eknath Shinde. Last time, when he had gone to Navi Mumbai as the chief minister, he had resolved the matter. Then why has it come up again? All these answers can only be given by Shinde,” Thackeray had said.
Shinde said on Sunday that when he was the CM, his government gave 10 per cent reservation to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category. It also formed a panel to trace Kunbi references, which benefited the Maratha community, said the deputy CM, who also heads the Shiv Sena.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena ministers Uday Samant and Dada Bhuse defended the work done by Shinde for the Marathas and asserted that the community was given the 10 per cent reservation when he headed the state government.
Besides the quota, vacant posts were filled during Shinde’s tenure as CM, they added.
Maratha quota movement leader Manoj Jarange has been on a hunger strike at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai since Friday, vowing not to leave the metropolis till the Maratha community is given the reservation.
Citing ‘Kunbi’- an agrarian community – antecedents of Marathas, Jarange has been demanding the reservation for the community under the OBC category.
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