Nagpur, Jun 18 (PTI) BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Friday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi government could not save the OBC reservation given in Maharashtra local bodies by the previous Devendra Fadnavis dispensation, and accused ruling parties in the state of falsely blaming the Centre on this issue.

The Supreme Court had recently ordered that the number of reserved seats, after taking into account those earmarked for SC, ST categories etc, cannot exceed 50 per cent of the strength of the local body.

He pinned the blame on discontinuation of OBC quota in local bodies on Maharashtra minister Vijay Wadettiwar and Chhagan Bhujbal and state Congress unit chief Nana Patole.

The BJP leader said the two people who had approached Supreme Court against OBC quota in local bodies were close to the Congress, including one being the son of a former MLA from Washim, and asked Patole to come clean on this link.

Shelar also claimed the Uddhav Thackeray government did not collect any sort of empirical data on OBC numbers in local bodies over a period of 15 months ahead of the court case.

After the court order on OBC quota, parties like the NCP and Congress were putting the blame on the BJP-led Centre, Shelar alleged.

(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)