Maharashtra: Want local body polls after decision on OBC quota, says CM Eknath Shinde

CM Eknath Shinde. Pic/Pallav Paliwal

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said his government supports the view that local body polls in the state should be held only after the decision of the Supreme Court on the issue of OBC reservation.

On June 1, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) had gone ahead declaring local body elections without the provision of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC). In fact, it has issued notification for polls to some lower-level civic bodies in August first week too.

Cutting across political ideologies, all parties in Maharashtra are in favour of reservation to OBCs and the opposition Nationalist Congress Party-Congress-Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) have also demanded deferring the polls till the issue is resolved.

Also Read: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis meet PM Narendra Modi in Delhi

"We (too) want local body polls to happen after the Supreme Court's decision on the OBC reservations issue. We wish the OBC community should get justice," Shinde said here as he addressed his maiden press conference in Delhi along with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Pointing out that massive manpower is needed to hold any elections, Shinde said, "There is a lot of rainfall happening in Maharashtra, many areas are witnessing floods and in such a situation we don't want to burden the administration with additional work of holding local body polls."

"We would request the State Election Commission to also postpone the local body polls," he said, and added, that several people, have registered their demand that the polls should not be held without the decision on the OBC issue.

Earlier in March, the Supreme Court had rejected the interim report of the State Backward Class Commission, prompting the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government to pass a cabinet resolution that the election (to the local bodies) should not be held without resolving the OBC issue.

Meanwhile, at the Delhi presser, when asked why Shinde and Fadnavis duo met Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, Shinde said, "We went to request him to represent Maharashtra in the OBC related case. It is very important for Maharashtra."

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