Mumbai, Feb. 14 : A special session of the Maharashtra Legislature will be held February 20 (Tuesday) to discuss the various issues related to reservation for the Maratha community, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced here on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Shinde, as per his commitment made in December 2023 on the same in the Assembly and to the Maratha community last month.

The announcement came as Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil completed his fifth day of indefinite hunger strike, even as his health condition steadily declined since Wednesday morning at his village Antaravali-Sarati in Jalna.

Jarange-Patil has reported bleeding from his nose, dehydration, physical weakness and severe abdominal pain, and though he was administered saline on Wednesday afternoon, he angrily yanked it off in the evening.

Jarange-Patil has reiterated his demand to the state government to immediately issue a notification to formalise the draft notification of January 26 on 'Sage-Soyare' (family bloodline), and expanding the OBC quotas to include Kunbi-Marathas and Maratha-Kunbis.

In a related development, the state government has informed the Bombay High Court's division bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Shyam Chandak that it is taking all steps to amend the rules and include the eligible Marathas in the OBC category by issuing the Kunbi caste certificates.

State Advocate-General Birendra Saraf said that the draft notification on this was issued on January 26, yet Jarange-Patil launched a fresh hunger strike, even as the court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.

Reacting strongly to the hunger strike, Maharashtra Congress slammed the MahaYuti government for ignoring the issue of Maratha quotas, and taking them 'for a ride'.

'If the government claims that it has accepted all the demands of the Marathas, why is Jarange-Patil forced to go on a hunger strike again? The government has once more cheated the community,' said state Congress President Nana Patole.

/IANS