Mumbai: Aiming to reap political dividends from the violence unleashed by their community, five more Maratha legislators offered their resignations on Thursday by email. Harshwardhan Jadhav of Shiv Sena and Bhausaheb Patil-Chikatgaonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had already offered their resignation on Wednesday. Meanwhile, according to officials from the legislative affairs department of Vidhan Bhavan, resignation by email is not valid and hence, not accepted by the administration. Meanwhile, a group of independent legislators have threatened to withdraw support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance government, if CM Devendra Fadnavis will be replaced.
A BJP minister from the Maratha community, on condition of anonymity, claimed, “Maratha leaders are afraid of facing the community in their respective constituencies. Leaders, especially from the ruling party, feel they will lose control over their constituency if they cannot give reservation to the community and the next election will be tough for them. Offering resignation is part of the strategy to create sympathy among voters and gain political mileage in the next election”.
The Maratha agitation is going strong in some parts of the state, including Satara, Sangli, Konkan and Navi Mumbai. Maratha protesters have threatened a grand march in August or September in Mumbai. During the statewide bandh on Wednesday, the agitators did not allow any political leader to lead the agitation. On the contrary, Chandrakant Khaire, Shiv Sena’s Member of Parliament from Aurangabad and Subhash Bhambad, Congress legislator, were manhandled at Koygaon in Aurangabad district at the funeral of Kakasaheb Shinde, who according to the agitators, is the first ‘shahid’ (martyr) to the cause.
BJP legislators Seema Hire from Nashik-west and Dr Rahul Aher from Chandwad in Nashik district, along with Bharat Bhalke of Congress from Pandharpur, Ramesh Kadam of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Mohol in Solapur and Dattatray Bharane from Indupur in Pune district (both belong to NCP) offered their resignation on Thursday. Kadam is prime accused in a Rs450 crore scam in the Lokshahi Annabhau Sathe Development Corporation and is currently in Arthur Road Jail. Kadam sent his resignation letter from jail. Bhalke has said he will not withdraw his resignation even if the Congress forces him to do so.
Meanwhile, Sena legislator Jadhav went to Vidhan Bhavan on Thursday to tender a copy of his resignation to assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade. However, Bagade was not in Mumbai and so he submitted his resignation to the legislative affairs department. On the other hand, Ravi Rana, independent legislator from Badnera in Amravati district has threatened to withdraw support to the government if Fadnavis was replaced. Other independent MLAs, including Shirish Chaudhary from Amalner in Jalgaon district and Madhavrao Phad from Pathari in Parbhani district, have supported Rana.