As the Maratha protests turned violent in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, two MLAs from Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have offered to resign to support the agitation of the Maratha community demanding caste based-reservation, besides addressing other issues.
Jadhav, son-in-law of BJP state president Raosaheb Danve, is a legislator from the Kannad assembly constituency, while Patil is the MLA from Vaijapur constituency in Aurangabad district in the Marathawada region. On Tuesday, Jadhav had announced that if the government failed to issue an ordinance for Maratha reservation by Wednesday, he would resign.
“As announced, I have e-mailed my resignation to the Assembly speaker. I will personally hand over my resignation to him on Thursday,” he said. In December 2015, Jadhav had resigned as an MLA following the delay in development works in his constituency but it was rejected by the legislative Assembly speaker.
Jagannath Sonawane, who consumed poison on Tuesday, died on Wednesday morning in a hospital in Aurangabad. Sonawane was from Deogaon Rangari village in Kannad teshil. Patil said Kakasaheb Shinde, who committed suicide on July 23 by jumping into the Godavari river for Maratha quota demand, was from his constituency.
“I am grieved at his death. Since the government has failed to deliver on the promises given to the Maratha community, I am resigning as a legislator to support the community. The government is delaying the issues of the community that is forcing many people from the community to commit suicide,” said Patil while announcing his resignation. Patil said he would handover the resignation to Legislative Assembly speaker Haribhau Bagde on Thursday.