Solve Mali quota demand in accordance with provisions: Pilot asks Raj govt

Amid the ongoing stir by the Mali community for a separate 12 per cent reservation, former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot Saturday urged the Rajasthan government to find a satisfactory solution to the matter in accordance with constitutional provisions.

Members of the have blocked Jaipur-Agra national highway in Bharatpur to press for their demand for quota in government jobs and educational institutional institutions. The agitation, during which a man hanged himself to a tree, continued for the ninth consecutive day on Saturday.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also belongs to the Mali community.

On Saturday, Pilot, in a tweet, said Saini, Mali, Kushwaha, Shakya and Maurya communities have been struggling with their demand for reservation for the last few days.

"I urge the state government to find a satisfactory solution to this matter as soon as possible in accordance with the constitutional provisions keeping in view their economic interest and social development," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Saini, Mali, Kushwaha, Shakya and Maurya belong to the Mali community. They are under the OBC category at present but are demanding a separate 12 per cent reservation.

A delegation of the community recently met Chief Minister Gehlot in Jaipur where he assured them of getting a survey conducted by the OBC commission. The agitators said they will end the agitation when the survey begins.

Meanwhile, the body of Mohan Singh who committed suicide on Tuesday by hanging himself from a tree near the protest site, has not been handed over to the family members. Post-mortem was conducted on Friday.

Sources said officials want to ensure the body is not taken to the site of the agitation and therefore a meeting was held with the family members. Till Saturday evening, the family members were waiting for the body.

Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads publicly for more than two years. In 2020, Pilot had led a rebellion in the party for a change of leadership in the state. However, Gehlot managed to survive and Pilot and some of his loyalists were later ousted from the state cabinet.

Their conflict has simmered since, with both the senior Congress leaders using sharp words against each other publicly, including when Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra had entered the state in December last year.

On April 11, Pilot sat on a fast, piling pressure on his own party by targeting the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan for 'inaction' in alleged cases of corruption when the BJP ran the state.