Mumbai, Jan 28 (PTI) NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Praful Patel on Sunday said the criticism of the Maharashtra government by senior leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal on its handling of the Maratha quota protest is not the official stand of the party.

Also Read | Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Don't Let BJP Win General Polls in Name of Religion, Says Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Bhujbal has echoed the stand of Samata Parishad, an Other Backward Class (OBC) organisation headed by him, and not of the Nationalist Congress Party, Patel told reporters.

Bhujbal questioned the "backdoor entry" of Marathas into the OBC grouping after the Maharashtra government accepted the demands of activist Manoj Jarange.

Also Read | AAP Will Contest All Assembly Seats in Haryana on Its Own, Lok Sabha Polls as Part of INDIA Bloc, Says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

Jarange withdrew the agitation on Saturday after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced that till Marathas got the reservation, they would be given all the benefits enjoyed by the OBCs.

The state government also issued a draft notification stating that blood relatives of a Maratha person, who has records to show that he belongs to the agrarian Kunbi community, would also be recognised as Kunbi, a community which gets the reservation under the OBC category.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)