‘BJP, Sena won’t get single vote from OBCs in 2019’

Mumbai: The Other Backward Class (OBC) communities has decided to speak out against the government of Maharashtra’s newly-promulgated Act for Maratha reservation under a special category. An OBC leader said that the government has made the Act  to appease the Maratha community ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2019. The decision was taken under pressure by the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, said Shravan Devre, OBC leader.

The OBC leaders have held two meetings in Jalgaon district of North Maharashtra in last two days. Mr Devre claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-Shiv Sena would not get a single vote from OBC communities in the general election.  

A bill proposing 16 per cent reservation for Marathas under socially and educationally backward category had been passed by the state legislature without a discussion in recently concluded winter session of the state legislature. Gover-nor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao also signed the bill and the state had also issued the notification of the same in the last week.

Speaking to The Asian Age on Sunday, Mr Devre said that the Maratha community had not demanded that the quota should be given to them under OBC category. Hence, the Maratha community had been supported by the Muslim, Schedule Tribes (ST)/Schedule Caste (SC), OBC and Kunbi.

He also claimed that the court would strike down the Act, which provides 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha community. The Maratha community would be asked to get the reservation under the OBC (19 per cent) by the Court in a course of time. It means that they would eat into the OBC quota.

Mr. Devre also said that he would inform the OBC community that a sword is tangling on their heads and it can fall at any time. “The result of our protest against this Act will reflect in the general election of 2019,” he said.