‘All parties should unite to give justice to Maratha community’

Deprived sections of Maratha community are living in extreme distress and the entire political class will be responsible if justice is not delivered to them, Rajya Sabha member Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati said after his meeting with Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Friday.

“We must look beyond politics and the chief minister and leader of opposition should come together to give justice to the Maratha community. I have told this with folded hands to Fadnavis' ', said the scion of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, who are descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji. It's not the time to see who is winning or who’s losing and if we fail to come together and could not give justice to the community then all of us will be responsible, he said.

Sambhajiraje, who is in Mumbai now, is meeting senior leaders of various parties. Yesterday he met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and MNS chief Raj Thackeray. Today he is expected to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and it is said that he may resign from his Rajya Sabha membership to be able to lead the agitation for the Maratha reservation independently.

He has distanced himself from BJP, the party that recommended his nomination to Rajya Sabha from the President’s quota. In 2016 his decision to accept the RS berth came as a severe jolt to the state political circle as he was spearheading the campaign for the Maratha cause. BJP was successful to create a dent in the agitation as it was viewed that Sambhajiraje was being used indirectly by Congress and NCP to trouble BJP politically.

In the present atmosphere when the state political equations have changed, it will be a sort of victory for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) that Sambhajiraje snaps his ties with the BJP. The MVA is keen to ensure that he targets the Narendra Modi-led union government on the issue of providing reservation to Maratha community.