Maratha reservation protests: Shiv Sena, NCP MLAs from Aurangabad offer to quit in support of quota demand

Mumbai/Aurangabad: Two MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district offered to resign on Wednesday in support of the Maratha quota demand . [caption id=“attachment_4820281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Maratha leaders protest for reservations for the community under the OBC category. PTI[/caption] Aurangabad district in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region has emerged as the epicentre of the Maratha quota agitation. The MLAs who offered to quit on Wednesday are the Shiv Sena’s Harshavardhan Jadhav and the NCP’s Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar, who represent the Kannad and Vaijapur Assembly constituencies, respectively. Jadhav, the son-in-law of the BJP’s state unit president Raosaheb Danve, had recently announced that he will step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met. In his letter addressed to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav said he was tendering his resignation Wednesday afternoon. When contacted, Jadhav said he had also e-mailed his resignation to the Speaker and will personally submit it to him in Mumbai on Thursday. In his resignation letter addressed to the Speaker, Chikatgaonkar said Kakasaheb Shinde, who committed suicide on 23 July by jumping into the Godavari river for the Maratha quota demand, was a resident of Kanadgaon village in Vaijapur constituency. “I am grieved by his death. Considering the self-respect of the Marathas, I am tendering my resignation,” he said. In the 288-member House, the Shiv Sena has 63 MLAs and the NCP 41.