Activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Sunday reiterated that he will relaunch his agitation if the Maharashtra government does not pass a law granting reservations in education and government jobs to the Maratha community by December 24, The Indian Express reported.

“We are confident [that] we will get reservation by that date [December 24],” the newspaper quoted Jarange-Patil as saying. “The government should pass a law in this regard before December 24. If it does not, the government will not even get one extra hour. We will agitate peacefully.”

The long-standing demands seeking a quota for the community have resurfaced in recent months with Jarange-Patil’s agitation. He had first begun a hunger strike on August 29 to press for the demand, but ended it soon after, giving the Maharashtra government a 40-day deadline to implement the reservations.

However, as the deadline elapsed, he resumed his indefinite hunger strike on October 25. The agitation has witnessed violence, suicides and the resignation of legislators in support of reservations.

He withdrew this strike on November 2 after holding a discussion with a Maharashtra government delegation. While ending his fast, he warned the state government of a bigger agitation if no action was taken to grant reservations by December 24.

On Sunday, Jarange-Patil said that members of the Maratha community had asked him to decide the course of action. “The chief minister [Eknath Shinde] will also speak to me tomorrow [Monday]…We will wait and see what the government does by December 23 when we will decide about our agitation from December 24,” the Maratha quota activist was quoted as saying.

Jarange-Patil said that state minister Girish Mahajan met him on Saturday and urged him to extend the deadline, the newspaper reported.

“I told him [Mahajan] there will be no more extensions…,” Jarange-Patil said. “December 24 is the final date by which the government has to provide us reservation. This is the date which the government had given. The government delegation which met me when I was fasting had promised that reservation would be provided by December 24.”

The Marathas are a group of clans, historically comprising peasants and warriors but generally with an agrarian background. The community has demanded quotas in education and government jobs for decades, citing a decline in financial stability following agrarian distress. A series of massive protests were organised to press for the demand in 2017 and 2018.

In 2018, under pressure, the Maharashtra government – then comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and a united Shiv Sena – provided 16% reservations for the Marathas under the socially and educationally backward category.

However, the Supreme Court blocked the Maratha reservation in 2021 citing the 50% cap on total reservations it had set in 1992. The court said that there were no “exceptional circumstances” or an “extraordinary situation” in Maharashtra for the state government to breach the limit.

Jarange-Patil has demanded that all Marathas be identified as Kunbis under the Other Backward Classes category. Kunbis, a Maratha sub-caste, are members of a largely agrarian community with small land holdings and low incomes, spread across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Also read: Maratha quota: Why caste divides the community as they rally for reservation