‘Maratha’ Manus Eknath Shinde: Maha CM Cements Position by Calming Down ‘Fasting’ & Furious Jarange

Manoj Jarange, the poster boy of Maratha reservation ended his hunger strike after 17 days on Thursday, as Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told him that his government was in favour of the quota and that steps were being taken in that direction.

After breaking his fast, Jarange spoke to his supporters and the media and reinforced his trust and faith in the CM. Shinde, a Maratha himself, also assured the community that his government was committed to the reservation for the Maratha community in education and government jobs.

While all this was unfolding, one thing went unnoticed — both the deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis (Bharatiya Janata Party) and Ajit Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), were absent.

However, other BJP leaders such as Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve, Maharashtra Cabinet minister Girish Mahajan, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, along with Sena (Shinde faction) leaders Sandeepan Bhumare, Uday Samant and Arjun Khotkar were present. Even former minister and NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction leader Rajesh Tope was present.

THE TRUST FACTOR

Jarange showing faith in Shinde over his deputies shows that his supporters and he trust the Chief Minister and nobody else. The reason could be the lathicharge on Jarange’s supporters a week ago.

When Shinde formed the government, it was evident that the state was running on the instructions of Fadnavis. As the survey advertisement ‘Modi for India and Shinde for Maharashtra’ featured, the differences between these two leaders increased. The lathicharge on Jarange’s supporters in Jalna gave Shinde the opportunity to emerge as a leader, while the opposition raised questions over Fadnavis, who is the home minister of the state.

Although Fadnavis apologised for the incident, it reignited the Maratha reservation issue and many protests were staged. Protests were even reported at Baramati, the hometown of Ajit Pawar, asking him to leave this government. Since the Jalna incident, both the deputy chief ministers have distanced themselves from the issue. But the BJP and NCP Ajit Pawar faction have declined the rumours of differences.

According to Fadnavis’s office, he could not visit Jalna as he was on the official Rajasthan tour, where he even addressed a rally.

THE CHIEF MINISTERIAL FACE

When Fadnavis was the Chief Minister of the state, the Maratha community held huge protest rallies in different parts of the state with the demand for reservation. Political analysts felt that the issue of Maratha reservation, which was kept on the backburner, was again brought to the forefront, just to push Fadnavis on the back foot.

Last Monday, a video of CM Shinde went viral, in which he is seen saying, “We need to speak out and leave…”

Shinde was trolled by the opposition and it was also portrayed that the current government is not serious about the issue. Later, Shinde issued a clarification.

According to Shiv Sena leader and former mayor of Thane Naresh Mhaske, “The CM is first a karyakarta and a ground leader. He doesn’t have any ego and went personally to meet Jarange, who was protesting for the community.”

The visuals from the meet made it clear that Shinde is portraying himself as the only leader of Maharashtra and the chief ministerial face.