New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday over the Maratha reservation issue and financial aid for cyclone relief measures.
Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan accompanied Thackeray.
"Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Shri @AjitPawarSpeaks and Cabinet Minister Shri @AshokChavanINC called on PM @narendramodi. @OfficeofUT @CMOMaharashtra," the PMO tweeted.
Thackeray and his cabinet colleagues of the Mahavikas Aghadi, a coalition of mainly the three parties - the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, are in the national capital to discuss issues ranging from the contentious Marathi reservation and aid for the state post Cyclone Tauktae, among others.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his official residence Varsha a day before the latter's meeting with PM Modi in Delhi. According to sources, the two leaders discussed key issues to taken up before the Prime Minister.
Read: Uddhav Thackeray to meet PM Modi in Delhi tomorrow to discuss Maratha reservation issue
Last month, Uddhav Thackeray wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to take steps to declare the Maratha community in the state as Socially and Educationally Backward (SEBC) to enable them to claim the reservation in education and public employment at least to 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.
"The Judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench (comprising of five Judges) of the Supreme Court on May 5, 2021, has given me this occasion to write to you with the earnest request that appropriate steps be taken at the earliest to grant reservation to the Maratha community from my State, albeit in accordance with the law, to the minimum extent of 12 per cent in Education and 13 per cent in Public Employment," the Maharashtra Chief Minister had written.
Read: At least I am taking stock on ground and not in helicopter: Thackeray hits back at BJP
A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and Ravindra Bhat in its judgment said that that people from the Maratha community cannot be declared as educationally and socially backward community to bring them within the reserved category.
(With agency inputs)
