Progress in Maharashtra was possible only if quotas for other backward classes (OBCs) and Marathas were kept separate, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar said on Sunday. The Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil must be told that Marathas could not eat from the OBC reservation pie, he reiterated.
Mr. Ambedkar, grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said the State government had no authority to “create a new caste” but merely to decide whether an existing caste was socio-economically backward or not.
He was taking part in an OBC rally in Nanded district organised by OBC outfits to counter Mr. Jarange Patil’s demands for a Maratha quota via grant of OBC certificates.
