The Maratha and OBC fight in Maharashtra is about the Kunbi certificate. OBC means Other Backward Classes. Kunbi is already on the Maharashtra OBC list. Manoj Jarange Patil wants Maratha families with Kunbi genealogy to get a place in that same quota. OBC groups say new certificates will shrink their share. Both lines are claims. A final court order is separate.
This is the position on 3 October 2026. Dates and quotes are from newspapers. A certificate being made is not an appointment letter.
What Jarange is asking for
On 17 September 2026 Jarange ended a 20-day hunger strike. Deccan Herald wrote that it was the longest of his fasts in three years. The fast ended after a meeting at Patoda in Beed with a delegation of water-resources minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. Jarange gave the government three months. He said the fast would start again if the promises were not kept. The three-month count opens around December.
His demand is recognition of old gazettes. The Hyderabad gazette, the Satara gazette and the Aundh gazette. From these records Maratha families want to show Kunbi genealogy and claim the OBC quota. He said the chief minister should sign a paper saying not one Kunbi record will be left out. The minister put the advocate general’s view on the Kolhapur and Satara gazettes at three to four months.
A certificate and reservation are not the same thing
A Kunbi certificate is a caste paper. Reservation is the share in jobs and college. A paper does not by itself give a seat. A seat comes from the recruitment notice and the cutoff. The Hindu wrote of a 2025 government resolution. That path spoke of quota in education and jobs for Marathas with Kunbi lineage. Kunbi is already OBC, so a new name entering the list is a fight inside the OBC share. It is not a decision to create a separate quota.
In August 2026 Jarange said the government issued certificates and also cancelled them. The Hindu wrote the reason for some cancellations. The paper did not show that a blood relative on the father’s side was Kunbi. Names included Jyoti Shinde, Varsha Gaikwad, Komal Parve and Rekha Sarode. These are cases. Not a cancellation of the whole community.
58 lakh and 22 lakh
The Hindu wrote that the fight is now on the legality of 58 lakh entries and what they mean. Jarange had a 12-point proposal. Show the 58 lakh Kunbi records at the gram panchayat, act against officers who refuse certificates, and apply the Satara, Aundh and Hyderabad gazettes. 58 lakh is not a government table in this article. It is the fight over the records.
Laxman Hake, on the OBC side, says certificates will shrink the OBC share. 22,20,577 certificates is his claim. An official table was not in these reports. The OBC side is not one voice either. Earlier reports said the national OBC federation did not back his Mumbai march. A claim is a claim. The share has shrunk is not a verdict.
What was said on 29 September
The New Indian Express printed the 29 September line. After discharge from hospital, Jarange asked the Maratha community to stay patient. He said he would announce the next path after 15 days. There was a line about preparing for a bigger fight. That is a statement. The three-month promise period is still running.
Fadnavis has said earlier that the demand will be looked at inside the Constitution and the present rules. Looking inside the rules is not the same as giving the quota. A signed paper from the chief minister, which Jarange asked for, did not show up in these reports as an issued order.
This is not the census-column story
The separate OBC column across the country is a demand about the census form. This Maharashtra fight is about the certificate and the seat in the quota. A column being added will not make a Kunbi paper. The 27 percent held recruitment in Madhya Pradesh is another story. The letter there comes on a department order.
Pages in the same line: the Kunbi certificate, the separate census column and 27 percent in Madhya Pradesh.
The numbers here are the numbers in the reports. A 20-day fast, ended on 17 September 2026. Three months of time. Three gazettes, Hyderabad, Satara, Aundh. A fight over 58 lakh records. 22,20,577 is Hake’s claim. There is no crowd number.
A simple example
Say a family is Maratha. An old paper of the grandfather says Kunbi. Jarange says match that record with the gazette, and issue a certificate. If the certificate comes, that family can fill a form in an OBC-quota recruitment. A seat comes only when there is a cutoff and a post. The paper alone is not a letter.
The fear on the OBC side is this. The quota is one pool. If new names enter the same pool, seats for older names can look fewer. That is what Hake is saying. 22,20,577 is his figure. Not a department list. Until a list is printed, the number is a forward.
The census column does not do this job. A column counts population. A Kunbi certificate is one family’s paper. A national march will not issue a Maharashtra certificate. Check your paper in your own district.
One more split. The older separate Maratha quota has been stuck in court. This page is not the verdict on that separate quota. This page is the Kunbi-path demand, inside the OBC list. Do not fold the two into one sentence.
Advice:
The plain point is this. The Maratha and OBC fight is about the Kunbi certificate. Jarange wants the OBC quota through genealogy. OBC groups say their share will shrink. The fast ended on 17 September, and the government got three months. A certificate is a caste paper, not a job letter. Do not take 58 lakh or 22,20,577 as a government table until a department list is visible. Match your paper on the tehsil or district certificate portal. If WhatsApp says the quota has been given, do not take it as an order.
