People in Antarwali Sarate, the village in Jalna district near Aurangabad, spent the whole of Wednesday waiting for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, hoping that he would come and Manoj Jarange-Patil, the activist who has been leading the Maratha protests, would end his fast.
Since morning, the atmosphere was rife with speculation that Shinde would fly down to Antarwali Sarate along with his deputy Ajit Pawar and the agitation would conclude successfully. At least two different deadlines were given at throughout the day. However, towards late in the evening it became clear that the CM was not coming to persuade the Maratha agitator to end his fast.
First it was said that the CM would come to the spot of the agitation at around 5pm. Then the timeline was shifted to 7pm. When there was no sign of the CM, it was said that his delegation would certainly come and interact with Jarange-Patil.
There was heavy deployment of police force at the site, which gave the impression that VIPs would be coming.
“I had no specific information that they were to come. But I was hoping that they would come,” Jarange-Patil told the media late in the evening.
On Tuesday Jarange-Patil had granted a month’s window to the government while putting up five conditions to withdraw the agitation, including written assurance and presence of the CM, both the DCMs and the descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji to end his fast.
Jarange-Patil indicated that he was likely to end his fast and also dilute some of his conditions.
Meanwhile, there were scattered incidents of Maratha agitation at several places in the state.
At Buldhana, Sambhaji Bhakre, a 40-year-old man, tried to jump from the gallery of a stadium in a bid to commit suicide during a pro-Maratha reservation march. Police personnel present on the spot prevented him from jumping off the gallery and took him into custody.
