Jarange to decide on fighting assembly elections on Aug 29

Kolhapur: Maratha activist Manoj Jarange has appealed to Marathas from across the state to gather at his village in Antarwali Sarati on Aug 29 to decide whether to field candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
He stated that if the decision to contest the election is taken then the candidates will be fielded as independent ones.
Speaking at Sangli on Friday morning, Jarange said that he has given the deadline of Aug 13 to the state govt to take a decision on the implementation of ‘sagey soyare’, providing Kunbi caste certificates to all Marathas and a few other demands.
He said that the Marathas should get the reservation only from the OBC category. He also claimed that the SEBC reservation of 10% passed by govt was forcefully imposed on the Marathas and was not a demand.
“The parties in power have suffered defeat in the LS election due to their animosity towards Marathas. Now, Aug 13 is the last deadline for them to consider our demands. On Aug 29, all communities will be coming together. If the parties in power want us to stay away from politics, they should accept the demands, and if not, we will field candidates. We will not launch any political party; we will field candidates as independents. We have voters with us, and therefore we will not require any symbol as well,” said Jarange.
Maratha activists had arrived in Kolhapur on Friday. A rally was also planned but it was cancelled because of the burning down of Keshavrao Bhosale Natyagruha. Jarange visited the site and demanded that govt step in and re-build the theatre.
Jarange also addressed Marathas at Shivaji Chowk and appealed to them to arrive in Antarwali Sarati. “We have been struggling for the last 11 months to get our demands met. If the govt is not giving us the reservation, we will have to get into the govt,” added Jarange.