New Delhi: Two Maharashtra politicians with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party dispensation have expressed dissatisfaction with the state government's stand on the Maratha reservation issue.

The two are Union minister Narayan Rane and Other Backward Classes leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who is also minister in the Maharashtra cabinet. Both have opposed the Eknath Shinde government's decision to extend benefits accorded to OBCs to Marathas.

The Hindu has reported that Bhujbal especially noted that this was a "backdoor entry" of the community into the OBC category.

Bhujbal is part of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, which aligned with the ruling faction of the Shiv Sena party and the BJP last year.

He said that the culmination of the Maratha quota stir has led to anxieties among existing OBC community members.

“The OBCs are having a feeling that they have lost their reservations as Marathas will take the benefits. I support giving a separate reservation to Marathas, but not sharing the existing OBC quota with them. Because once they become a part of the existing reservations for OBCs, only they will get the benefits,” he said.

Meanwhile, Midday has reported that NCP (Ajit Pawar division) leader Praful Patel has said that Bhujbal's criticism of the Maharashtra government  is not the official stand of the party.

Patel said Bhujbal's stand was that of the Samata Parishad, the OBC group headed by him, and not of the NCP.

Bhujbal said that retired Justice Sandeep Shinde, who heads the committee that will look into the Kunbi records of Marathas, receives an excessively high salary. He said that while the Chief Justice of India gets a salary of Rs 2.80 lakh, Justice Shinde and the committee members get Rs 4.50 lakh each.

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