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This is an archive article published on February 26, 2024

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil withdraws indefinite hunger strike, targets Fadnavis again

Jarange-Patil says he will undergo treatment and continue his agitation after a few days.

Manoj Jarange PatilMaratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil. (Express file photo by Pavan Khengre)

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil Monday withdrew his indefinite hunger strike which he had started 17 days ago.

The move came a day after Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde cautioned Jarange Patil to not “cross his limits” after the latter alleged that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was conspiring to “eliminate” him.

On Monday, Jarange targeted Fadnavis again alleging that he was bent upon repeating the Antarwali-Saraati type episode where the police had lathi-charged Maratha protestors.

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“I am withdrawing my indefinite hunger strike after 17 days. This hunger strike is being converted into relay hunger strike. Every day, four youths will sit on relay hunger strike. Similar, relay hunger strike should be organised by Maratha community all over the state,” Jarange Patil said while calling off his hunger strike.

“A crowd of over 25,000 people including 5,000 women had gathered at Antarwali-Saraati last night… Anything could have happened. The crowd would have run helter-skelter. Fadnavis wanted to create second Antarwali-Saraati. I saved the situation. If there was lathi-charge, the Marathas would have then run riot. I saved Maharashtra… It was Fadnavis who was behind the first lathi-charge in Antarwali-Saraati… Even now he is conspiring to repeat it. He is refusing to withdraw cases against Maratha protestors. I urge the chief minister and both the deputy chief ministers not to provoke the Maratha community,” he added.

After the September 1 lathi-charge in Antarwali-Saraati, Jarange Patil has been repeatedly targeting Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio.

The deputy chief minister, on his part, has refused to meet the activist and has not visited Antarwali-Saraati yet.

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Jarange Patil said the police have imposed curfew at some places which is preventing people from coming to Antarwali-Saraati.

“I have decided to visit several villages in Maharashtra and interact with the people there. I am not going to back down till the law relating to ‘sage-soyare’’ is implemented,” the quota activist said.

Meanwhile, later in the evening, Jarange Patil was admitted to a private hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar after his health started deteriorating. The doctors advised him rest for 4-5 days.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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