Mumbai, Nov 1 (IANS): Chief Minister Eknath Shinde convened a meeting of leaders of all political parties on Wednesday to discuss the raging issue of Maratha quotas which unanimously decided that reservations will be given, but the government needs time to complete the relevant legal formalities, and also appealed to the protesters to shun violence.
The meeting was attended by over 30 leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Congress state President Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve, Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Vijay Wadettiwar, and others.
The all-party meet adopted a detailed resolution saying: “We are unanimous about giving reservation to Marathas. This can be done only after completing the legal formalities to ensure reservation that can withstand legal scrutiny. For this all political parties are ready to work together.”
“The legal formalities shall be completed as soon as possible. However, it must be given sufficient time, that we have to take into consideration,” added the resolution, reiterating the CM’s stance in the past few days.
“The kind of violence that has flared in the state is not proper and is giving a bad name to the Marathas quota agitation. We are strongly against such violence. Nobody should take the law into their hands. We appeal to maintain the law and order situation in the state,” said the leaders of all the political parties.
They also appealed to (Shivba Sanghatana leader) Manoj Jarange-Patil to cooperate with the government and withdraw his hunger strike, which entered the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday, said the resolution signed by the CM and all the leaders present.
This was the first major attempt by the ruling alliance to involve the Opposition parties in the Maratha quotas imbroglio that has culminated in violence, stone-pelting, arson, road and rail blocks, demonstrations, attacking political leaders’ homes, banning political leaders in over 4,000 villages, etc., in several parts of the state since Sunday.