Jarange-Patil calls Bhujbal a ‘panauti’ for fomenting caste unrest

Jalna (Maharashtra): In a fresh onslaught, Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil labelled Food & Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal a ‘panauti’ (ill-omen) and accused him of fomenting casteist unrest in the state, here Thursday.

Jarange-Patil is crusading for Maratha reservation for the past nearly four months while Bhujbal has vehemently opposed his demand for slice out Maratha quotas from the OBC category.

With both the groups standing in direct confrontation, Bhujbal went on a survey of some rain-ravaged areas in Nashik on Thursday where he encountered strong protests from the farmers.

Responding to this, Jarange-Patil said that as Bhujbal is a bad luck and because of him the state’s farmers will suffer from the proverbial ‘sade-saati’ — an astrological term denoting misfortune for seven-and-half years.

“Bhujbal is a ‘panauti’ and will bring ill-omen to the tillers… He breaks the laws, refers to the castes of great idols, he is opposed to reservations and is fomenting caste unrest while occupying a constitutional post,” alleged Jarange-Patil.

He advised the breakaway Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) group, not to go ahead with his survey tour of the affected agriculturists and said “let the government administration do the necessary work for the affected farmers.”

“Does he (Bhujbal) go there and prepare ‘panchnamas’? Then why is he going there to trample the fields… The farmers seem to be better off when he leaves them alone,” said Jarange-Patil.

In his ongoing tour of several villages in the Yeola taluka of Nashik, Bhujbal on Thursday encountered vociferous protests and demonstrations by local Maratha youths and elderly persons who attempted to stop his vehicle, raised slogans against him, asked him to ‘go back’, and said he should leave them to their fate.

At one village, after the minister’s motorcade departed, the locals shouted slogans behind him and ritually purified the roads by sprinkling cow-urine and chanting mantras, with videos of the developments going viral, with Bhujbal seen trying to pacify the agitated crowds.