Maratha quota violence | Fadnavis should resign as home minister: Supriya Sule

Mumbai, Oct 30 (PTI) Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule on Monday demanded the resignation of Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the Maratha quota violence.

The agitation took a violent turn earlier in the day when the house of an NCP MLA was torched. In separate incidents, protesters set the first floor of a municipal council building on fire and vandalised it in Beed district. The office of BJP MLA Prashant Bamb was vandalised in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, according to police.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Sule said, “Maharashtra home minister (Devendra Fadnavis) should resign. Look at the violence. What is happening in the state? A house of an MLA was set ablaze. A Panchayat Samiti office was also torched. Is anyone looking into these incidents (to uphold law and order)"? The Lok Sabha member criticised Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's decision to set up a committee of experts against the backdrop of protests by the Maratha community.

"This (announcement by Shinde) came after 40 days (when the ultimatum to grant quota was initially given by quota activist Manoj Jarange). Doesn't it amount to cheating the people from all the communities including Jarange? What is the point in appointing one committee after another?” she questioned.

Shinde has said a three-member committee of experts will be set up to advise the state government on submission of a proposed curative petition in the Supreme Court in connection with the Maratha quota issue.