INDAONE NEWS TEAM Pune, January 25: THE storm called Manoj Jarange-Patil hit Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad on Wednesday and it passed away only early Thursday morning.
Lakhs of Maratha community members accompanied the Maratha Reservation Morcha that arrived around 4 am and crawled through the city.
The morcha started around 11 in the morning from Kharadi and reached Shivajinagar area only around 8 pm.
The traffic on Pune-Ahmednagar Road and arterial roads lead to it were hit badly. The trafffic crawled in and around Pune station, Shivajinagar, Vimannagar, Yerwada and Kalyaninagar area for better part of the city.
On the request of the police, Jarange-Patil agreed to change the route of his march. The Pune police urged him to avoid the vicinity of hospitals and he agreed.
At every stretch, at every chowk or junction, Jarange-Patil was given huge reception. He was felicitated, garlanded and flowers and petals were showered on him by members of the Maratha community which had turned up in huge numbers in Pune. Every member of the Maratha community flaunted a saffron dupatta. The city, it seemed, was drowned in a sea of saffron.
The Maratha community repeatedly raised slogans hailing the initiative and leadership of Jarange-Patil, who started his morcha from Antarwali-Saraati village, the epicentre of his hunger strike, in Jalna district of Maharashtra.
The morcha started on January 20. Jarange-Patil is expected to reach Mumbai on January 26 where he will start his fast to press for his demand for blanket reservation for the entire Maratha community.
During his morcha from Kharadi to Shivajinagar, Jarange-Patil interacted with media and said he would not backtrack, come what may. He said even if the government wants to shoot him down, he will not back down. ”My only aim is to get reservation for the Maratha community so that our children get a secured future,” he said.