If Marathas have 20% votes, 80% with us, says Chhagan Bhujbal

PUNE: NCP leader and cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Saturday hit out at the state government over the law and order situation following the Maratha quota row.
Referring to deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’s statement in the assembly that police had resorted to lathicharge at Antarwali Sarati in self-defence after 79 personnel suffered injuries in stone-pelting, Bhujbal said, “I was saying for the past two months that police were attacked, but no other politician dared to speak the truth.Had Fadnavis made this point clear immediately after the incident,Manoj Jarange would not have got the sympathy and support he now has.”
He further said, “Jarange’s demand to include all Marathas under Kunbi is impractical, but why is nobody from the community speaking against him? Why are some senior politicians also quiet? Are they thinking about their (Maratha) vote bank? If they think that the community has 20% votes, they should understand that the remaining 80% of votes are with us,” he said.
Bhujbal had on November 26 created a stir by saying that the committee headed by retired Justice Sandeep Shinde, formed by his own govern-ment in connection with the Maratha quota issue, should be discontinued as its work was over.
Bhujbal had also said he was not against reservation for Marathas, but was opposed to the “ongoing practice of obtaining Kunbi certificates by submitting fake or forged documents.”
The state government set up the five-member panel headed by Justice Shinde to decide the standard operating procedure for giving Kunbi certificates to members of the Maratha community who were referred to as Kunbis in Nizam-era documents.
Kunbis (the community associated with agriculture) are grouped under the OBC category in Maharashtra.