Maratha community will teach Mahayuti govt a lesson: quota activist Manoj Jarange
Jalna (PTI): The Maratha community will teach Maharashtra’s Mahayuti government a lesson for denying reservations and registering criminal cases against protestors, says quota activist Manoj Jarange as the state gears up for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Jarange, who hit the headlines for going on fasts unto death several times last year to demand reservation for the Marathas in education and government jobs, also said the community has not taken any political stand in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections though there is simmering anger against the establishment.
The community's anger and unity forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to campaign extensively in Maharashtra, Jarange said in an interview to PTI at his village Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district.
Issuing a thinly veiled warning to the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP `Mahayuti' government in the state, he said, "Why were cases registered against those who staged Rasta Roko (road blockade) peacefully, those who launched hunger strikes, held meetings or rallies during the quota agitation last year.
“This was the misuse of the home department. The community will not tolerate it. We will teach them a lesson for sure."
The home portfolio is held by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
"Because of them (state BJP leaders) Modi had a tough time. He had to hold so many rallies and stay put here. This is because the poor Marathas have come together.....This is the fear of our solidarity," Jarange said.
The prime minister has so far held more than 10 rallies in Maharashtra, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, during the ongoing election.
The Maratha quota agitation intensified in September 2023 after police lathi-charged protesters at Antarwali Sarati, in Marathwada region’s Jalna district, where Jarange had launched an indefinite hunger strike. It was followed by violent agitations in Beed and other areas of Marathwada in October, eventually forcing the government to hold talks with him.
Though the government agreed to issue `Kunbi' (an OBC community) caste certificate to eligible Marathas, his demand that all Marathas be given reservation in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category has not been fulfilled.
"Even a leaf cannot move in Maharashtra (without Marathas). This is why Modi saheb has to struggle. And some BJP leaders are responsible for this. Because of them Modi had a tough time. He has to hold so many meetings," Jarange said.
The community, which comprises 28 per cent of the population, will take some decision "at an appropriate time", he said, adding that the prevailing sentiment was that those who did not give reservation must not be supported.
He also vented ire at the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.
"Injustice has been done to the community not only by the Mahayuti, but also by the Maha Vikas Aghadi. It is a fact that there is anger. False cases have been registered (against community members), an SIT has been formed, attacks were engineered, and reservation under the OBC quota was not given."
In Jarange’s view, MVA parties Congress and the NCP were in power for so long but their chief ministers, from the Maratha community, did not extend reservation to the community.
Earlier this year, assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar had directed the government to set up a Special Investigation Team to conduct a comprehensive inquiry after Jarange made some controversial remarks about Fadnavis.
If the demands are not met, the Maratha community will field candidates in all 288 assembly seats in the state elections due later this year, and they will represent all the communities, the activist told PTI.
A massive gathering of the Maratha community will be held at Narayangad in Beed district on June 8, after the results of the Lok Sabha elections are out, Jarange said, indicating that the agitation will be revived ahead of the state elections.
The quota granted to the politically dominant community by an earlier government was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 2021 on the ground that it caused the total reservation in the state to exceed the 50 per cent ceiling.
Earlier this year, Jarange marched to Mumbai with lakhs of people. Following protests, the Maharashtra legislature in February unanimously passed a bill providing 10 per cent reservation for the Marathas in education and government jobs under a separate category.
However, Jarange is demanding reservation from the OBC quota as he fears the fresh quota law will not stand the legal test. His demand for reservation from the OBC pool is being opposed by the OBC community.
For the first time, Maharashtra is witnessing a five-phase polling. Jalna goes to polls on May 13 in the fourth phase. The fifth phase will be held on May 20.
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Huge turnout amidst SIR shadow caps ballistic battle for Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal assembly polls ended on Wednesday with what the election watchdog said was the state's highest-ever voter turnout of 92.84 per cent, leading to mouth-watering anticipation ahead of the announcement of results on Monday as both contenders sounded sanguine about their victory prospects.
Wednesday's second phase saw a 92.48 per cent turnout. The concluding phase covering 142 constituencies in south Bengal appears poised to match the first phase's record voter participation of 93.19 per cent by the time final numbers are collated.
The figures put the combined poll percentage over the two-phases at 92.84 per cent. The first phase of polling was held on April 23.
"This is the highest-ever recorded poll participation since Independence in West Bengal," it said.
The capital Kolkata recorded a turnout of 88.59 per cent, with Purba Bardhaman district topping the charts at 93.78 per cent.
The scale of participation sent out an overarching political message — practically every single eligible voter in the state felt personally invested in the electoral process and its outcome. They turned out in numbers large enough to make every narrative contested and every claim of momentum politically loaded. If the first phase tested whether the BJP could retain its north Bengal citadel, the second and final round was always the real battle for the saffron party on whether it could breach the ruling TMC’s southern fortress of Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman.
At the centre of the larger political fight stood Bhabanipur, no longer merely a south Kolkata constituency but Banerjee’s political refuge, her emotional home turf and the BJP’s chosen psychological battlefield.
Banerjee, 71, seeking a fourth consecutive term after 15 years in power, faced Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in a prestige battle widely seen as a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where Adhikari had defeated her in 2021 after crossing over from the TMC to the BJP.
Five years later, the duel shifted to Banerjee’s own bastion. For the TMC, retaining Bhabanipur is about protecting the chief minister’s authority in her own backyard. For the BJP, breaching it would puncture the aura of invincibility around Bengal’s most powerful political figure.
The constituency witnessed nearly 87 per cent polling, sharply up from around 61 per cent in the 2021 assembly polls and 57 per cent in the bypoll that brought Banerjee back to the House.
Banerjee – who usually votes later in the day and prefers staying indoors on the day of polls – broke convention and hit the ground before 8 am, moving through Chetla, Padmapukur and Chakraberia areas following complaints of alleged intimidation of local TMC leaders.
As she sat outside a booth amid heavy deployment of central forces, Adhikari arrived there and declared, "I will not allow any hooliganism." He opposed Banerjee moving around with "50-60 people" with her.
Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to "rig" the election by using central forces, election observers and officials.
"The BJP wants to rig this election. Polls in Bengal are usually peaceful. Is there a goonda raj here?" she said, alleging intimidation of TMC polling agents and late-night visits by CRPF personnel to party workers’ homes.
"The atrocities by the central forces are unprecedented. What is happening is not at all free and fair polls. But despite all this, we have full faith that we will win," she said after casting her vote.
Adhikari dismissed the charges as "frustration", claiming Banerjee had realised that "not a single vote was coming her way".
Tension flared again in Kalighat when Adhikari visited another booth, and TMC workers raised slogans against him. Police resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd as BJP supporters answered with counter-slogans. Reports of sporadic tension were also received from some other areas amid sights of long queues at polling stations, booth-level flare-ups, and political bickering.
In Kolkata's Entally, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal alleged that the TMC's polling agents tried to assault her after she objected to overcrowding inside a booth and a lack of voter privacy.
In Panihati, BJP candidate and the R G Kar victim's mother, Ratna Debnath, faced protests, while her party colleague in Basanti, Bikash Sardar, alleged that "200 to 250 TMC goons" attacked his vehicle and assaulted his driver.
The TMC, meanwhile, accused the central forces of exercising brute force on the general voters at Falta's Belsingha village, especially women, who were beaten up during a move to disperse a crowd from near a polling station.The party also alleged CAPF high-handedness on women and a four-year-old child at Sathachhia in Howrah and on villagers at Ausgram in Purba Bardhaman district.
"In the name of ensuring security, central force jawans are not sparing even women who were brutally lathi-charged. TMC protests this highhandedness of the male jawans who exercised brute force on unarmed villagers. We draw the EC's attention to such illegal actions of the CAPF and ask the poll body to issue cease-and-desist orders against such use of force. We believe, people of Bengal will respond to this on EVMs," Anirban Banerjee, party spokesperson, said.
The BJP alleged that in several polling stations in Falta, the option to vote for the party was blocked using a tape over EVM poll buttons, and demanded repolls in the affected booths.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said repolling was likely to be announced in booths where EVMs were found tampered with. However, the order will only be issued after authorities receive reports from the district election officer or election observers regarding allegations of EVM tampering, such as using tapes or a blot of ink, he said.
