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A day after Maharashtra government filed an affidavit in Bombay High Court backing reservation for Marathas, Congress on Tuesday threatened to launch an agitation if quota for Muslims in educational institutions, scrapped last year by the BJP-led dispensation, is not implemented. The state government on Monday had filed a 2500-page affidavit in the Bombay High Court in support of its decision to grant reservation to Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions across the state.

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“If government does not take a decision on implementation of Muslim quota, Congress will agitate all over the state raising the demand,” said Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Arif Naseen Khan. Welcoming the government’s affidavit, Khan recalled the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government had provided reservation to Marathas as well as Muslims in government jobs and education.

“Though the High Court (had) stayed 16 per cent quota for Marathas and 5 per cent for Muslims, the reservation for Muslims in educational institutions was allowed,” Mohammed Arif Naseen Khan said. He said the government had scrapped the Muslim quota last year. The previous Congress-NCP government had issued an ordinance in run up to 2014 elections allowing 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five per cent for Muslims in government-run schools and colleges as well as jobs.

The decision was challenged in the Bombay High Court, which while striking down reservation for Marathas, allowed five per cent quota for Muslims in educational institutions, but not jobs. After coming to power, Devendra Fadnavis government scrapped an ordinance providing reservation for Muslims though HC had allowed quota for them in educational institutes.

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