MUMBAI: BJP’s well-developed OBC vote bank over the years is under threat in Maharashtra due to pressure from the Maratha community to include them in the OBC category by giving Kunbi caste certificates for educational and government jobs.
In the state, 13% reservation has been given to scheduled caste (SC), 7% to scheduled tribes (ST) and 19% to Other Backward Classes (OBC), while 2% is for special backward classes (SBC), 3% to nomadic tribes (NT), 2.5% to NT (B), 3.5% to NT (C) and 3% to NT (D).
Earlier, the Maharashtra government gave 15% reservation to the Maratha community but SC struck this down, citing a lack of data to prove Marathas are backward and that the state cannot break the 50% ceiling of reservations.
Manoj Garange Patil, a Maratha community leader, who has been protesting for the last nine days demanding the Maratha reservations, has given an ultimatum for four days to the state government to include the Maratha into the OBC category by giving them Maratha-Kunbi certificate.
However, Vishwnath Patil, the president of Kumbi Sena, threatened to launch a protest if the state government started giving Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community.
“We have been demanding that the Kunbi caste should be kept in the special OBC category. No other caste should be included in the OBC category. We condemn the police attack on the Maratha community. We are with the Maratha community, but they should not be given the certificate. It will deprive other communities in OBC,” Patil said.
He added, “Maratha is a progressive community and 95% of the Maharashtra Chief ministers are from the Maratha community. Kunbi and Maratha are not one caste. We are not against giving them separate reservations,” Patil said.