Marathas' sit-in protest outside Dharashiv hotel where Raj Thackeray staying

Dharashiv (Maharashtra), Aug 6 (IANS) A day after kicking up a huge row with his comments, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray faced the ire of the Maratha groups, who assembled outside the hotel where he was staying, as he planned to meet Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil, here on Tuesday.

The Marathas raised slogans and condemned Raj Thackeray’s remarks in Solapur on Monday flaying the ongoing reservation disputes, scrapping quotas and demanding 100 per cent reservations for locals in Maharashtra.

As the local police beefed up security there, at one point, the MNS chief sent a word to the protesters to stop raising slogans and instead come to meet and discuss the issue with him, but they did not oblige, amid speculation that he would call on Jarange-Patil.

Reviving the MNS old ‘sons-of-the-soil’ plank, Thackeray urged that the local youth must get jobs in the state, without the question of caste or reservations, “as our youth are being deprived of educational and employment opportunities” at the cost of ‘outsiders’.

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar promptly hit back at Raj Thackeray’s comments, saying it intended to create confusion. Ambedkar also demanded that the MSN leader should be booked under national security charges and "dumped" in jail.

Jarange-Patil, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) general secretary Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and Sushma Andhare, besides senior Congress leaders, slammed the MNS chief for his utterances during his pre-poll tour.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that he was not aware of who had spoken what and would not comment on them, but reiterated that “the Mahayuti government is fully committed to giving quotas” within the legal framework.

The MNS chief contended that there was no need for quotas in Maharashtra if things were properly managed, as the state generates a lot of employment opportunities that can fulfil the needs of the locals, but the latter are ill-informed of it.

“People from other states are coming and getting education and work here… Maximum resources are spent on outsiders and all urban infrastructure is being created for them. Owing to this, our local boys and girls are suffering. So, people from Maharashtra must be given 100 per cent job reservations,” Raj Thackeray had demanded.