The Maha Vikas Aghadi got a shot in the arm in its strategy when Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, the father of Sambhaji Raje Bhosale, who is spearheading a statewide silent agitation for securing the Maratha quota, wanted to know PM Narendra Modi’s views on considering the demand for amending the Constitution to restore the reservation in jobs and education. He said the Centre’s initiative can only overcome the Supreme Court’s scrapping of the quota.

Launching the protest from Kolhapur, Shahu Maharaj spoke his mind in the presence of MVA ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and chief of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Prakash Ambedkar. He said the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar met him recently and told him that the demands that are in the state’s ambit have been given an in-principle approval. “The Constitution has made about 125 amendments so far. What if one more is done? The subject should again be taken to the PM, who should express his thoughts clearly on the matter,” said the descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.