manoj jarange-patil, a Maratha activist, seemed to suggest that he would bring candidates for the legislative assembly elections which are expected to be held in October or November 2024 after the loss of Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti party in Lok Sabha polls due to wrath of majoritarian Marathas.
Jarange-Patil had launched an agitation demanding Other Backward Classes (OBC) quotas for marathas, who form the majority community in Maharashtra. This rankled OBCs and Marathas.
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manoj jarange-patil, gets support from Muslims and Dalits.
In general elections however Jarange-Patil had emerged as a disruptive factor and it is reported that Marathas voted with their feet to back MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) nominees. As a result of this together with support from Muslims and Dalits, MVA candidates walked over seven seats out of eight in the Marathwada region which was the epicenter of quota protests.
The leaders of the ruling alliance including former Union minister Raosaheb Danve Patil (Jalna) and Pankaja Munde (Beed), former Minister Gopinath Munde’s daughter lost.
Jarange-Patil and his allies want to reclassify the main community whose warrior ancestors are Kshatriyas as Kunbis (peasant/tillers) under OBC. The Kunbis are already classified as OBCs together with Maratha-Kunbis and Kunbi-Marathas. Only Kunbi-Marathi have opposed this demand for declaring Marathi as Kunbi thereby making them OBCs too.
After an assessment from August 14-20 of all constituencies,, Jarange-Patil said he would make his final announcement on August 29th. It is our right therefore we are asking all MLAs irrespective of their political parties who belong to the Maratha community to give quotas for the Maratha in OBC. The only thing that can enable this is power, and they have power. We have an option of taking over power if it is not given to us by assuming that these reservations will be given,” he continued.
manoj jarange-patil and a counter-protest by Laxman Hake.
However, Laxman Hake, an OBC activist and former member of Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC), who had organized a counter-protest against his demands accused jarange-Patil of having political aspirations at the expense of his community “Does he want to come into politics or do the marathas want to come into politics?” He asked.
“When did the marathas leave politics? They work in politics” Hake said. According to him about 60% of population which was collectively constituted by OBCs could completely decapitate established maratha leaders and dynasties who had not spoken up for OBC cause.
According to a long-time Maratha community leader with alleged connections to several older MVA officials, Jarange-Patil was never really expected to make it big in politics on his own. It is agreed by one leader that Jarange-Patil a exploited organizational networks in order to push candidates through at elections, as he wanted them win votes.
manoj jarange-patil at the end of September in 2023
At the end of September in 2023, the police used a cane charge to allow them move towards Jarange-Patil to hospital. And this happened as a result of which dormant Maratha reservation protests began anew. For the demand to be met, Jarange-Patil had started an indefinite fast unto death on August 29 at Antarwali-Sarati village in Jalna district, over 400 miles away from Mumbai. On September 1st, they were charged by the policemen with canes causing them to scatter and unleash violence across the state.
About fifty-two percent of Maharashtra’s population is believed to consist of OBCs while thirty-one point five percent are Marathas and Kunbis. The Kunbis are already categorized as OBC; they are heavily concentrated in Konkan and Vidarbha where their marriages do not have to be only among themselves but also with the Marathas. Backwards too will provide satisfactory evidence that one identifies himself/herself as either Maratha-Kunbis or Kunbi-Marathas. A more conservative estimate puts the number at between twelve and sixteen per cent for Marathas (excluding Kunbis).
