We said here three weeks ago that reservation-related issues promised to dominate the state’s socio-politics in the near future. The churning has started big time, making the state’s politics intensify over matters that influence electoral output. Before it could offer agitated Marathas a plausible solution for denial of quota by the apex court, apart from blaming the previous BJP government in the state and current regime in the Centre, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is faced with turmoil within because of the warring partners and an uprising-like situation outside during the life-threatening pandemic. The state’s non-Maratha constituents - the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, vimukta jati and nomadic tribes and special backward class and other backward class - are also up in arms, because of some state-level decisions and legal complications that threaten to impact their quota in politics and promotion in government jobs. All of them, including Marathas, together make up for the 90-95 per cent of the state’s population. Imagine how high the political stakes could be in such an expansive and restive canvas.

As far as a quota for Marathas is concerned, all major parties have been in support of it. Who wouldn’t when the community accounts for 33% of the population, the largest in the state? But friction between the Maratha and non-Maratha ranks of political parties has always been visible over the quota. Of late, the tussle has assumed a serious proportion because, after the court’s verdict that reservations can’t exceed 50 per cent, the OBCs have been increasingly feeling that Marathas could share their quota. Likewise, the unity of Maratha leaders cutting across the parties in the mission reservation, the bond between the OBC leaders has been working against the Maratha intrusion, if any. The friction is intense in a three-party coalition of MVA which has a large number of Maratha and non-Maratha leaders. Prompted by massive protests and an urge to give the community what the previous governments couldn’t deliver legally, the BJP made a law to give Marathas a quota, which the high court approved of, but the apex court scrapped. It won’t be wrong to say that the conditions are more difficult than the previous times.