Manoj Jarange-Patil, 41, will brook no excuses from the Maharashtra government. The son of poverty-stricken farmers, who is now hailed as a modern-day Maratha yodha (warrior), is getting ready to conduct rallies across the State in December demanding that the Maratha community be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. He has set a deadline for the government to do this: early January 2024. And if they do not, “It will prove costly.”
Standing outside his two-room, 85 sq metre house in Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district, 400 km from Mumbai, Jarange-Patil says the government must give the Marathas Kunbi OBC certificates. Kunbi is a caste under the OBC category and enjoys reservation benefits in government jobs and education. While Marathas are estimated to account for 33% of the State’s population, the OBCs account for 52%.
The activist claims that 32 lakh records have been found showing Marathas to be Kunbi OBCs.
