Sharad Pawar urges Centre to remove 50% cap on quota; Sena questions timing

Sangli: NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar urged the BJP-led Centre on Friday to bring a constitutional amendment to increase reservation in education and government jobs beyond the existing cap of 50 per cent.

However, Shiv Sena questioned why Pawar was raising the issue just before the Maharashtra elections and demanded to know what he had done to get the matter resolved during his stints as the chief minister.

Speaking to reporters here, Pawar said that while granting reservation to Marathas, who have been agitating for quota, care should be taken to ensure that such limits meant for other communities are not disturbed.

“Currently, the cap on reservation is 50 per cent. But if Tamil Nadu can have 78 per cent (quota for various communities), why can’t Maharashtra have 75 per cent reservation,” he asked. The Centre should take the lead and bring a constitutional amendment to raise the quota cap. “We will support the amendment,” he said.

Pawar said the seat-sharing talks among the leaders of the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will continue next week. “I would only advise the leaders to conclude the talks as early as possible so that we can go to the people, who are looking for a change,” he said.

MVA partners NCP (SP), Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress fought the recent Lok Sabha polls as one unit and performed impressively, winning 30 of the 48 seats in the state.

The Maharashtra Assembly polls are due in November.

Pawar said people are positive towards bringing a change in the government and the MVA should respect their sentiments. The NCP (SP) chief also welcomed the decision to accord the “classical language” tag to Marathi and congratulated the central govt for it.