Opposition demand caste-based census, skip Shinde’s tea party on eve of budget session

Mumbai: Leaders of opposition Ajit Pawar (in the assembly) and Ambadas Danve (in the council) on Sunday demanded that the Maharashtra government conduct a caste-based census on the lines of Bihar.

If the claims by each community representative were believed, the state’s population would touch 50 crore instead of 12 crore, Pawar, a senior NCP leader, said. “So, it is important to find the exact percentage of each community. We are not promoting casteism, but it is better to let everyone know what the percentage of SCs, STs, OBCs, open, and other categories is.”

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the budget session, Pawar and Danve, a leader from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), also declared a boycott of the tea party hosted by chief minister Eknath Shinde, in protest against what they called the failure of the government to tackle the farmers’ issues, law and order etc. “The common man is not happy with the government’s performance, and it will be an insult to their emotions to attend the tea party,” Pawar said.

During the MVA rule, a resolution was passed to hold a caste-based census in Maharashtra to find out the exact percentage of the OBC population, the NCP leader said. “However, the Central government expressed its reservations over the idea. But now, since the Bihar government under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar has declared to conduct such a census, we are going to make a similar demand on the floor of the house in the budget session of the legislature.”

The opposition also targeted the government over the law-and-order situation. “MLAs were attacked; a journalist was killed in Kokan; and gangsters are threatening to assassinate the daughter and son-in-law of MLA Jitendra Awhad,” Pawar and Danve said.

If CM claims he is the representative of the common man, then why about 3,000 files related to various public issues are pending in his office, Pawar asked.

“What happened to the promise of providing 75,000 jobs to youths?” Danve said, adding the CM made big claims to bring mega industrial projects to the state, but he had failed.

About the alleged agrarian crisis, the duo claimed that onion farmers are getting only ₹1 or ₹2 per kg. They demanded that the government allow onion export to countries like Bangladesh where there is a shortage and stop the import of cotton from Australia to give relief to the farmers in the state.

Later, a delegation of the opposition held a courtesy meeting with new Governor Ramesh Bais.

In the afternoon, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP leaders met in the state legislature to chalk out a strategy to corner the government in the budget session. Leaders of Congress, the third constituent of MVA, were in Raipur to attend the plenary session of the party.