No need for quota in Maharashtra if local youths get priority in jobs & education, says MNS chief Raj Thackeray

KOLHAPUR/CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: There will be no need for reservation in Maharashtra if priority in jobs and education is given to local youths, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said in Solapur on Monday.
"The state has adequate resources that need to be used properly. A huge amount of money is spent on developing infrastructure for people coming from outside. Local youths should be given priority in jobs and education, and if something is left after that, then it should be given to those from outside the state," he said.
Thackeray called the turmoil over reservation a political ploy and referred to NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar's recent statement where the latter said he was worried that Maharashtra would become another Manipur where a clash between two communities had been going on for months."Sharad Pawar should not lend his hand to take Maharashtra in that direction. Instead, he try to stop it. Given his politics so far, the question arises if he wants to turn the state into another Manipur."
Thackeray, who is in Solapur to interact with party office-bearers to plan a strategy for the assembly elections, said his party would contest 225-250 assembly seats. He even declared the candidature of Bala Nandgaonkar for Shivadi and Dilip Dhotre for Pandharpur, the two constituencies currently representated by Shiv Sena (UBT) and BJP. Nandgaonkar has won assembly elections four times - the first three on a undivided Sena ticket and in 2009 on MNS ticket. Dhotre has been a Sena supporter for three decades.
The MNS chief said the alliance with BJP in the Lok Sabha elections was only limited to his support for PM Narendra Modi and not for the assembly polls.
Thackeray also refuted BJP's claims that the opposition ran a fake campaign of "Save the Constitution" during the LS polls, which hurt the party. "In reality, BJP started it first. Its Ayodhya candidate was the first to say that after BJP got 400-plus seats the Constitution would be changed. BJP gave the narrative to the opposition and not the other way round."