A ‘bandh,’ or a shutdown, has been called by a Maratha outfit in Thane city, Maharashtra, scheduled for September 11, to protest the recent police lathi-charge against demonstrators in Jalna.
Leaders from opposition parties within the state have thrown their support behind the ‘bandh’ organized by the Sakal Maratha Morcha, with backing from the Sambhaji Brigade. During a meeting of opposition party leaders held in Thane, they voiced their solidarity with the bandh and urged Thane’s residents to participate in it.
Prominent figures at the meeting included Suhas Desai, the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) city unit president, Pradeep Shinde from Shiv Sena (UBT), Ravindra More and Avinash Jadhav from MNS, Ramesh Ambre, the Maratha Kranti Morcha’s city chief, and Vikrant Chavan, the Congress’ city president. The trigger for this protest was an incident earlier this month when an agitation demanding reservations for the Maratha community turned violent in Antarwali Sarathi village, Jalna district. The violence resulted in injuries to numerous individuals, including several police personnel. Police resorted to a lathi-charge and used tear gas shells to disperse the unruly mob, which had reportedly obstructed authorities from transferring a man on a hunger strike as part of the quota protest to the hospital.