All-party meeting in Mumbai on Monday to discuss Maratha quota, says Ajit Pawar

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An all-party meeting has been convened in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the Maratha quota issue, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said, reported news agency PTI.

Addressing a rally in Kolhapur city, nearly 380 km from Mumbai, on Sunday Ajit Pawar said several people from the Maratha community were rich but many were poor and needed help.

"While giving the reservation to the Maratha community, it must be ensured that Other Backward Classes are not affected. Only discussions and meetings will solve this issue," Ajit Pawar added.

An all-party meeting is called in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the Maratha quota issue, he said.

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange has been on hunger strike for the last 13 days demanding Kunbi status, which effectively means OBC quota, for all Marathas.

The rounds of talks between the state government and Jarange have remained inconclusive so far.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday claimed "almost all MLAs" of NCP had written to Sharad Pawar demanding the party join "Mahayuti" (NDA) government when the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation was on its way out.

Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena, collapsed in June last year after Eknath Shinde rebelled.

The rebellion played out between June 21 last year, when several MLAs left for Surat in Gujarat and onwards to Assam, and culminated on June 30 when Shinde became chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"When the Uddhav Thackeray's government was about to collapse, almost all NCP MLAs had written a letter to the party chief (Sharad Pawar) asking him to join the Mahayuti government (by supporting the BJP)," Ajit Pawar said at a rally in Kolhapur.

"If it (what he has said) is wrong, then I will retire from active politics immediately. If my claim is right, then those spreading lies should retire," he said.

Ajit Pawar, who joined the Shinde government along with eight MLAs on July 2 this year, said "Just about anybody is now standing up and speaking against us".

"We respect that in a democracy people have the right to express dissent. We are in power to solve the issues of people," he claimed.

(With inputs from PTI)