Maharashtra Legislative Council: Opposition stages walkout on Muslim reservation issue

Opposition members in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Tuesday staged a walkout to protest against the BJP-led government's "indifferent attitude" towards the issue of reservations for Muslims.

The issue was raised by NCP's Khwaja Beg and Jaywantrao Jadhav, who wanted to know government's stand on re-issuance of ordinance to extend reservations to Muslims in the educational institutions and government jobs.

Leader of Opposition, Dhananjay Munde, said the High Court has upheld the reservations in educational institutions for Muslims, but the government still allowed the original ordinance in this regard to lapse, and no fresh decision was forthcoming.

"This showed the indifferent attitude of the BJP-Shiv Sena government," he alleged.

Senior cabinet minister Eknath Khadse (BJP) listed the objections raised against giving reservations to Muslims, and said the matter was pending before the High Court. The reply failed to satisfy the opposition MLCs who trooped out of the House.