Sharad Pawar calls for 75% reservation quota to include Marathas, others

Mumbai: With the Maharashtra assembly elections around the corner, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday turned up the pressure on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, urging it to introduce a constitutional amendment to increase reservation in education and government jobs to 75%, up from the Supreme Court-imposed cap of 50%.
Pointing to Tamil Nadu, where reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes was increased to 69% in 1990, Pawar asked why Maharashtra can’t do the same. “The problem is that no government can cross the 50% cap on reservation quota. If a state wants to have more reservation, changes will have to be made in the Parliament by bringing a legislation,” he said.
The veteran leader made the comments while responding to a question from reporters in Sangli related to resolving the Maratha reservation row, which is heating up as the assembly polls draw closer. The Maratha community, led by the firebrand activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, is getting aggressive over its demands, which include reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota by issuing Kunbi caste certificates. The Kunbis get reservation under the 27% OBC quota in Maharashtra. However, OBC activists have launched a counter-agitation against sharing their quota with Marathas.
Not resolving the Maratha-OBC reservation row is among the main reasons attributed to the ruling Mahayuti government’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The issue could again queer the pitch for political parties ahead of the assembly polls, with other communities like Dhangars and Lingayats also staging reservation protests.
Pawar believes the only solution is to increase the reservation cap. “We will have to increase it by 25%. In that case, those who are not getting reservation will be able to get it, and those who are getting less reservation can also be considered. All the issues will be resolved,” he said.
The 83-year-old Pawar, who also comes from the politically influential Maratha community, has supported their reservation demands. He had also met Jarange-Patil when he started an indefinite hunger strike after a police lathicharge in Jalna last September.
The NCP-SP’s ally, the Indian National Congress, had also vowed to pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50% reservation cap if voted to power at the Centre. States like Maharashtra, Odisha and Chhatisgarh have previously attempted to increase their reservation caps but have been restrained by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Pawar also commented on leaders from the BJP and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP joining his party ahead of the assembly polls. “These are old supporters who had gone to the wrong place. They realised their mistake and decided to return. I welcome them as we are old colleagues and have worked together for the last many years,” Pawar said.