On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar dismissed the
BJP's claim that MVA killed the OBC reservation in Maharashtra, stating that the government will receive the findings of a special commission on empirical data on OBCs in June and that it will be immediately handed up to the Supreme Court. He hoped that the Supreme Court would accept it and, like Madhya Pradesh, allow civic and local body elections with an OBC quota.
"Once the commission created to collect empirical data for the OBC quota presents its report to the government in June, the state government would approach the Supreme Court." The Maharashtra government has also begun investigating whether the Supreme Court judgement permitting Madhya Pradesh to hold local body elections with OBC reservations may be applied to Maharashtra," Pawar remarked. "It is the role of the opposition to criticise the administration, but let me assure you that the state government is working hard and taking all necessary efforts to restore the OBC quota in Maharashtra's civic and local authorities," he said.
Pawar stated that the state government will work till the very last minute and deploy top lawyers to ensure that the OBCs are represented in the upcoming civic and local body elections in the state. "The commission, led by former Chief Secretary Jayant Banthia, is collecting empirical data on OBCs. We will present our case to the court when it publishes its report in June," he continued.
While extending political reservation to OBCs, Pawar underlined that the state administration will ensure that the total reserve remains within the 50 percent quota ceiling. "We've begun to work in that direction." We've spoken with the relevant officials. "They seemed upbeat as well," the deputy CM added.
He noted that both the ruling and opposition parties enacted measures mandating that the State Election Commission (SEC) determine the poll calendar for local and municipal body elections in collaboration with the state government. He claimed that these measures were signed by Governor BS Koshyari.
Meanwhile, Sachin Sawant, general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh
Congress Committee, said the state government should study the final report of the Madhya Pradesh Backward Class Commission, based on which local body elections with OBC quotas were allowed there, and that it could serve as a "guide" for the western state. This divine report should be sought out and examined because it will serve as a guide for Maharashtra," Sawant wrote on Twitter.
