Congress wants quota limit to be raised to 75%, asks state govt to introduce Bill in House

Chavan added that MLAs of BJP too extended the support to the bill to increase the reservation quota presented by Bihar government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “Congress has already accepted the position to undertake caste census and increase the reservation quota. The party has already accepted the resolutions in the working committee meeting. The state government should now take the lead,” said Chavan.

Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar too raised the same demand saying that raising the reservation limit would solve the problems in the state. “We expect the state government should initiate the proceedings to this effect in the coming winter session of the state legislature,” he said. Wadettiwar, an OBC leader from Vidarbha, said caste census is the need of the hour and must be undertaken to solve the Maratha reservation issue.

Maharashtra has been facing aggressive agitation from the Maratha community demanding reservation and Kunbi (OBC) certificate. Maratha community’s new found leader Manoj Jarange-Patil had sat on fast unto death demanding the same which led to violent protests in different parts of the state. The state government has assured him to speed up the said process and directed the Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee – formed to decide on the procedure to give Kunbi certificate to Marathas – to expand its work to all over Maharashtra and not limit only to Marathwada.

The decision, however, has created anger within the OBC community which has opposed it saying it will reduce their share of reservation with inclusion of Marathas. The Congress has been demanding to lift the 50% reservation limit to ensure that Marathas can be given additional reservation without compromising that of the OBCs.