Jarange begins his 11th fast, calling it the last until Kunbi papers are issued

Maratha quota organiser Manoj Jarange-Patil sat down to an indefinite fast at Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district on Saturday and called it the last one he would start.

It is his 11th fast in three years. The demand list has not shortened. He wants Kunbi caste certificates issued against 58 lakh historical records identified by the Shinde committee, validity certificates issued with those papers, government resolutions on the Satara, Kolhapur, Aundh and Bombay gazetteers, abolition of the state's caste verification committees, and withdrawal of police cases against protesters.

He told reporters that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis holds a grudge against the community and that Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is giving quiet cover through Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat. If the files do not move, he said, the next walk is to Varsha, the chief minister's bungalow in Mumbai. "This is my final agitation. I will not get up till all the issues are resolved."

Heavy police deployment at the village drew a line from him about a wrestling match. Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who holds water resources, arrived in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in case talks were needed. After a meeting with local officials, Vikhe Patil said only 0.3 percent of entries had been rejected and that eligible applicants were receiving certificates.

The legal knot is older than this fast. Marathas want a share of the Other Backward Classes quota through the Kunbi route, which treats a subset of the community as tillers already listed in colonial and princely records. OBC groups argue that opening that door without a new commission and a new ceiling will cut their own seats and jobs. Courts have struck down earlier Maratha quota laws. The present fight is therefore about certificates and gazetteers, the paperwork that can be issued without a fresh statute.

Jarange's complaint on Saturday was that matching documents are still being turned down and that schools continue to charge full fees from students who were promised OBC-level concessions. He asked why Maharashtra needs a separate verification committee when tehsildars and sub-divisional magistrates do the work in other states.

He set 29 August as the date months ago, after a meeting with BJP MLC Prasad Lad. At that meeting he had praised Fadnavis for taking a constructive line. The tone on Saturday was the opposite. That swing is now part of the record the government has to read.

If the fast holds through the week, the state faces a familiar choice: send a negotiating team to Jalna, issue a fresh government resolution that the activists will test in court, or wait out the medical risk. Jarange has ended previous fasts after written assurances. He says he will not do that this time. The written assurances are what the 58 lakh record-holders will measure against the certificates that actually reach the tehsil office.