publive-image

The Maharashtra Congress in its meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday, passed a resolution in support of granting reservations to the Maratha and Muslim communities in education and government jobs in the state.

In the meeting chaired by Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole, the party as part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance reiterated its commitment towards development of all communities in the state and called the demand for reservation for Muslims a “part of the MVA government’s program for the welfare of all communities”.

Earlier in 2014, the Congress-NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) Government in Maharashtra had approved a 16% reservation for Marathas and 5% for Muslims in the state ahead of the Assembly Polls.

However, the reservation for Muslims was later scrapped by Former CM Devendra Fadnavis despite the Bombay High Court’s rulings allowing the reservation in education while rejecting it in government jobs. He had maintained that there is no provision in the Constitution for religion-based reservation and added that the BJP Government in Maharashtra had done much more for the welfare of minorities than what a quota could provide.

Building on the same, Patole, in the meeting, said, “During the Congress rule, we gave Maratha and Muslim quota, but later Devendra Fadnavis scrapped Muslim reservation. Since Congress is the partner in Maha Vikas Aghadi, we want to fulfill our promise to the community.”

Interestingly, while the second MVA ally – NCP had also sought for a quota for Muslims under the common minimum agenda, the resolution could turn into a bone of contention for the third ally Shiv Sena, which proclaims itself as Hindutva party.

Sources within the Shiv Sena have asserted that succumbing to the Congress’ demand could hurt its electoral prospects in the future. They however maintained that “we are confident that CM Uddhav Thackeray will handle the situations skillfully as he is doing in other cases.”

The reservation for Muslims could add to the existing quota figure, which is already above the 50% capped by the Supreme Court, after quotas to Marathas in education and jobs were introduced. Due to the same, the Maratha reservation granted under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category is currently stayed by the Supreme Court.

This is not the first time that the Congress-NCP has advocated for Muslim reservation by the MVA in the state. In February 2020, Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik had said that the party would soon extend the contentious 5% reservations for Muslims across educational institutes in the state. However, the Shiv Sena had maintained that no such decision had been taken.