Maharashtra govt invites protesting OBC activists from Chandrapur to Mumbai for talks on quota issue

Ravindra Tonge, head of the students' wing of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, has been on a hunger strike here for the last 18 days, demanding that the Maratha community not be included into the OBC category.

Chandrapur: The Maharashtra government has invited some representatives of the Other Backward Classes community, whose associates have been protesting here against the demand to include Marathas into the OBC category, to Mumbai for talks on quota issue, a district official said on Thursday.

Ravindra Tonge, head of the students’ wing of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, has been on a hunger strike here for the last 18 days, demanding that the Maratha community not be included into the OBC category.

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Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Wednesday met the activists of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh in Chandrapur, and held talks with them. He also urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies to invite the protesters for a dialogue with them.

On Thursday, Chandrapur Collector Vinay Gowda sent letters to eight protesting activists, in which they were asked to depute their representatives for talks with the government in Mumbai on Friday on the quota issue, the official said.

“The OBC leaders will take an appropriate decision after talks with CM Shinde and other leaders on Friday,” said Sachin Rajurkar, general secretary of Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh.