Nagpur: A heated exchange of words erupted between Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar and State BJP President Chandrashekar Bawankule over the issue of Maratha reservation. Wadettiwar’s demand of including Marathas into OBC, and increasing the overall reservation ceiling from 50% to 75% drew sharp reaction from Bawankule, who slammed him for this demand.
Bawankule retorted that Marathas deserve reservation, but it should not come at the cost of the quota for OBCs and others like Vimukt Jati and Nomadic Tribes. Wadettiwar’s demands are in bad taste, the BJP chief said.
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Wadettiwar on Saturday demanded that the Central Government should grant reservation to the Maratha community on the lines of EWS. He also insisted on bringing a bill in the Parliament’s special session from September 18. He appealed to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to convene a Special Assembly Session to discuss the issue.
Reminding that the then CM Devendra Fadnavis led BJP government had not only granted the reservation to Marathas, but also maintained it in the Bombay High Court, Bawankule blamed the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government for failure to defend it in the Supreme Court.
“Former CM Uddhav Thackeray and his entire Ministry, of which Wadettiwar was a part, is responsible for failure to maintain the reservation. The Fadnavis Government had conducted a detailed socio-economic survey of Marathas. But the Thackeray Government failed to even rope in a good lawyer for fighting the case in the apex court,” Bawankule said.
