As Maratha Morcha reaches Pune city, Jarange-Patil says he has no interest in joining politics

At every junction in the city, Jarange-Patil was felicitated, garlanded and showered with flowers. As the Maratha activist stood out of a black SUV and waved to the crowd, the traffic on Nagar Road in Yerawada, Vimannagar, Kalyaninagar, Pune station area and Khadki was affected.

Though the traffic in core city areas, epsecially on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road, was badly affected, the Pune police played it down. “The morcha was stopping after few metres. The activist was felicitated and at some places, he also addressed the crowd… The traffic was affected in the areas through which the morcha passed,” commissioner of police Retesh Kumaarr told The Indian Express.

An array of vehicles accompanied Jarange-Patil right from Antarwali-Saraati, where he started his morcha on January 20. On the way, members from the Maratha community joined him in Beed, Ahmednagar and Pune districts. Many carried household items, including blankets and bedsheets, as Jarange-Patil asked his supporters to prepare for a long haul in Mumbai, where he will begin his hunger strike on January 26 to press his demand for reservation for the Maratha community.

The Pune police said the morcha was moving so slowly that it was supposed to reach Pune city area around 12 noon on Tuesday. “But it reached at 4 this morning ,” said police, adding that after taking a halt in Kharadi, the morcha started marching towards the city around 11am.

While Maratha activists said lakhs participated in the morcha when it entered Pune city limits, police estimated the crowd to be in the range of 15,000-20,000. “We believe that over 15,000 accompanied the activist while a few hundred joined him at every chowk in the city,” said the police chief.

Police said they had asked the participants of the morcha to avoid the routes near hospitals. ”They immediately cooperated,” said the police commissioner said.

On his part, Jarange-Patil said they had no objection to the police request and therefore, immediately agreed. “We didn’t want patients to suffer,” he told journalists.

While addressing the media, the Maratha activist also said that he did not nurse any hopes of joining politics. “I am an ordinary human being. I do not want to enter politics. One needs a lot of money to make it into politics…I am fighting for the common man. We are fighting only for reservation,” he said.

Jarange-Patil said the mammoth participation in the march showed the mood of the crowd. “The government gave us the word but is not keeping it. We gave seven months’ time to the government, but it failed to meet our demand. The government claims that it has found lakhs of Kunbi records but is doing nothing to issue caste certificates. The government has said that it will bring in a law for reservation but has done nothing. The OBC community is not asked to produce any records but the government wants Kunbi records from the Maratha community,” he said.

Asked about the restrictions imposed on entry of vehicles in Mumbai, the Maratha activist said there are no such restrictions. “We are going to Mumbai with a purpose of securing reservation for the Maratha community…The government has said that it has found 54 lakh Kunbi records…We want the government to issue caste certificates to those people, whose records have been found.”

Stating that the Maratha community was not holding anyone to ransom, the activist said, “We are seeking reservation so that the Maratha community also lives in peace. We are urging citizens only to provide us as glass of water as we pass through their streets and march towards Mumbai.”