40 BJP leaders held in Mumbai for protest seeking OBC reservation in polls

The Mumbai police on Wednesday detained nearly 40 BJP workers including senior party leaders Chandrakant Patil Pravin Darekar and Sudhir Mungantiwar while they were protesting outside the party office near the state secretariat seeking reservation for the OBCs in electionsThe detained BJP workers were taken to the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai and later released an official saidEarlier some BJP workers started the protest around 1130 am outside their party office near the Maharashtra secretariat Mantralaya in south Mumbai demanding reservation for the Other Backward Classes OBCs in electionsAs the protesters along with some 250 party workers were planning to go to Mantralaya to press for their demands the Marine Drive police intervened and started taking them into the police vans the official saidAt least 40 protesters including Leader of Opposition in state Legislative Council Pravin Darekar state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil and former minister Sudhir Mungantiwar were detainedThey were released after being taken to the Azad Maidan the official saidMeanwhile Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole termed the protest as a iquestpolitical stuntiquest and said the opposition party should protest outside the prime ministers office insteadThe BJPs march to Mantralaya is nothing but hypocrisy The fact is that the process of terminating the OBC reservation in the state had started under the BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis and the Central government also supported it So the BJP has no right to speak on OBC reservation Patole saidIt is the agenda of the BJP and its parent organisation RSS to put an end to reservations and the march to Mantralaya was just a political stunt he saidThe Congress leader lashed out at BJP leaders asking them to protest outside the Prime Ministers office if they are so concerned about the OBC reservationSteps to end the reservation for OBCs were taken in 2017 The Fadnavis government had postponed the Nagpur Zilla Parishad elections by issuing a simple circular and the issue became complicated he claimedThe Fadnavis government did not take any action to save the OBC reservation while the case went to court It was asleep for five years and now the BJP is trying to push the blame on to the MVA government for it he saidThe Congress has always supported the OBCs and we have demanded that elections should not be held without the political reservation for the community and the MVA government is also making efforts for this Patole saidHe further claimed that during his tenure as a Speaker of the state Assembly he passed a resolution seeking a castebased census but the Centre did not take a decision on itThe BJP had also promised reservation for the Dhangar community in the first cabinet meeting and then kept them waiting for five years the Congress leader claimed accusing the BJP of being the real killer of the OBCs political reservationThe Supreme Court earlier this year rejected the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commissions interim report recommending the restoration of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in the local body polls The court also asked the state government and the SEC not to act on the commissions recommendationsThe Supreme Court had last year stayed the 27 per cent quota for OBCs in local body polls It had asked the government to set up a commission to conduct empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness and specify the proportion of reservation requiredThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever