Jarange ends 20-day fast and gives Maharashtra three months

Manoj Jarange Patil called off a 20-day hunger strike in the early hours of 17 September at Patoda in Beed district, after a Maharashtra government delegation led by minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil met him on the road to Mumbai. He gave Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's government three months to act on Maratha reservation demands, and said he would bring the agitation into the city if the deadline passed without results.

Jarange, 44, had begun the fast on 29 August at Antarwali Sarati in Jalna and was scheduled to reach Mumbai on 19 September by way of Ahilyanagar, Pune and Khopoli. He asked more than a lakh of supporters who had already gone to the city to return. The strike is over. The agitation, he said, is not.

His core demand is that historical records, the Hyderabad Gazette, the Satara Gazette and the Aundh Gazette among them, be officially recognised so that Marathas who can show Kunbi lineage receive Other Backward Classes certificates. He wants a written assurance, signed by the chief minister, that none of the roughly 58 lakh Kunbi records identified in Marathwada will be cut or cancelled. "On the basis of these records, I will bring three crore Marathas within the ambit of reservation," he said.

The body and the calendar

Doctors at Galaxy Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar said his blood pressure and blood sugar had fallen and that he was severely dehydrated after he stopped intravenous fluids on 12 September. He lost consciousness on the twentieth day and was moved by ambulance. A doctor named Solanke said he was out of danger and under watch. Jarange told the crowd he could no longer manage basic functions and that the fight had taken a toll, then added that his community was larger than any government.

Fadnavis had said the state would not accept intimidation and had questioned the timing during Ganesh festival. The delegation at Patoda listed steps the government says it has already taken on certificates and records. Jarange's reply was that verbal promises have been used before. Three years of agitation, he said, plus three more months, should be treated as the last window.

Why the certificates matter

Maharashtra's courts have struck down standalone Maratha reservation more than once for breaching the 50 percent ceiling. The Kunbi route is an attempt to move eligible Marathas into an existing OBC list rather than create a new quota. OBC groups oppose that route because it would dilute a finite pool of seats and jobs. That is the political trap Fadnavis is in. Grant the records and he faces an OBC revolt. Refuse them and Jarange's next march is to Azad Maidan, which last year stopped South Mumbai.

The three-month clock runs to mid-December. What to watch is not a speech. It is whether the state prints a signed note on the 58 lakh records, and whether tehsildars in Marathwada start issuing certificates against those records at a volume that matches the claim. If those two things happen, the next fight moves to the courts. If they do not, the next fight moves back to the Mumbai highway.