Maratha quota stir: Municipal council building torched; home, office of two MLAs targeted

PTI, Oct 30, 2023, 6:51 PM IST

Maratha reservation agitators set on fire the residence of NCP MLA Prakash Solanke in Beed, Maharashtra, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. (Credit: PTI)

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Violence and arson gripped the ongoing agitation seeking reservation for the Maratha community as pro-quota protesters on Monday set on fire the residence of NCP MLA Prakash Solanke and also hurled stones at it, torched a municipal council building and vandalised the office of another legislator in Maharashtra, police said.

The incidents of violence and arson were reported from central Maharashtra’s Beed and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts even as Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange continued his indefinite fast in support of the reservation demand at a village in Jalna district. No casualties were reported.

The residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Solanke at Majalgaon town in Beed district was set on fire and stones were hurled at it by a group of quota agitators late in the morning, police said.

The group also set ablaze a car parked at the residence of Solanke after an audio clip of the MLA, in which he purportedly spoke about the Maratha quota agitation and made a veiled comment on the fasting quota activist Jarange, went viral.

It is not clear whether the Majalgaon MLA, who belongs to the NCP faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, was present inside the residence at the time of the incident which occurred at around 11 am.

“The incident occurred after an audio clip of MLA Solanke about the Maratha reservation issue went viral. A bandh was called locally. The house of the MLA and a car were torched by some people and stones were also hurled,” an official told PTI.

In the audio clip, Solanke was purportedly heard saying that “the issue (the demand for reservation and the ultimatum of 40 days given to the government for its implementation by October 24) has become a child’s game.

“The person, who has not even contested a gram panchayat election, has become a smart person today,” he said in an apparent dig at Jarange.

Solanke told a news channel he was in Majalgaon when the incident occurred.

“Agitators surrounded my residence from all sides and nobody was in the mood to listen. Stones were thrown at my house and vehicles were also set on fire. I stand with the demand for the Maratha reservation. I have won the elections four times with the help of the Maratha community and I am a Maratha MLA,” he said.

After the arson at the legislator’s home, a group of Maratha reservation activists dispersed from there and later set ablaze the first floor of the Majalgaon Municipal Council building and vandalised it, another police official said.

The group, armed with wooden sticks and stones, first damaged the window panes of the building.

The vandals them went on the first floor of the building and torched it, burning down the furniture there, said the official.

Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and doused the flames, he said, adding there were no casualties.

Beed Superintendent of Police Nand Kumar Thakur said, “The mob that torched the residence of Prakash Solanke later moved to the municipal council of Majalgaon. They torched the first floor of the municipal council building. Police teams that quickly reached the civic office took people out well in time so there was no injury to anyone.”

A company of the State Reserve Police Force (around 100 personnel) has been requisitioned to maintain law and order in Beed district, he said.

“Pro-quota protests are going on at three to four locations in Beed district as of now,” Thakur told PTI.

Police are scanning the CCTV footage of the area to identify the persons involved in torching the municipal council building and process was on to register an offence against them, he said.

In a related incident, Maratha quota supporters, armed with wooden sticks, vandalised the office of BJP MLA Prashant Bamb at Gangapur in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, the police said.

They damaged window panes and furniture inside the office of the ruling party legislator, they said, adding two persons were detained for questioning.

Members of the Maratha community have been staging protests in different parts of the state seeking reservation in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

The agitation intensified after Jarange launched an indefinite fast from October 25 at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district as part of the second phase of the quota stir. The activist was on a hunger strike from August 29 to September 14, and called off his agitation after the state government assured to look into his quota demand.