Maharashtra Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has emerged as the main political beneficiary of the Bombay High Court verdict upholding the reservation brought in by him for the Maratha community in educations and jobs, even though the court downsised the quota from 16 per cent to 12 per cent for education and 13 percent for public jobs. Fadnavis is a Brahmin chief minister in a state where the Marathas are the single biggest voting bloc. Since 2014, he had received a lot of flak for the delay in bringing in the Maratha quota. His success in ensuring that the Maratha quota passed the legal test after two previous unsuccessful attempts, once by the Congress-NCP at the end of its term in 2014, and his own government’s that same year, will help elevate Fadnavis’ stature in the state’s political scene. READ | Bombay High Court upholds Maratha reservation but says ‘16% not justifiable’ The numerical strength of the Marathas is such that they have the potential to swing the outcome in nearly 200 of the state’s 288 Assembly seats. The fact that Maratha leaders from the Congress and NCP failed to get reservation for the community and it was a Brahmin-led BJP government that finally managed to see it through, will play in favour of both Fadnavis and the BJP as the state heads into polls later this year. But the Fadnavis government’s challenge now would be to convince that the reservation to Maratha does not hurt the OBCs, their biggest voter group since 2014. Mindful of this, Fadnavis, during his speech in the house, remarked, “The quota is over and above the constitutional reservations. It does not impact the quota for the OBCs in any way.”
