With no let-up in the Maratha quota stir, beleaguered Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde called for an all-party meeting on November 1 in a bid to defuse the situation even as quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil issued a fresh 24-hour ultimatum to the government on Tuesday to grant immediate reservation to the Marathas via a special session of the State Legislature.
In his ultimatum to the CM and both Deputies (Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar), the activist warned of giving up drinking water from November 1 if the government did not immediately grant reservation for all Marathas.
“If you do not take a concrete decision by November 1, then I will stop drinking water from the evening onwards. I do not know the effect that will have on my health. But the State government will be responsible for everything henceforth. Maharashtra is peaceful. But our guess is that this government does not want the situation to remain so. So, I am warning the CM and his Deputy CMs, particularly one of them [alluding to Mr. Fadnavis] that they should not test our [Maratha community’s] limits,” Mr. Jarange Patil said.
