Devendra Fadnavis: 'Open category students won't suffer due to quota'

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday, October 16, during an election rally stated the open category students will not suffer due to the quota. He said that his government is completely committed to the welfare of all sections of the society, referring to a scheme in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto in which students from the open category will get scholarships to study abroad. The Chief Minister was addressing an election rally in his assembly constituency Nagpur South-West. Fadnavis is seeking a re-election from the Nagpur South-West in the October 21 assembly polls. The BJP released its manifesto on Tuesday. BJP working president JP Nadda released the manifesto along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state party president Chandrakant Patil and Mumbai unit head Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

Fadnavis assures open category students

In the BJP manifesto, the party has promised to set a financial development corporation (arthik vikas mahamandal) for all the open category students. Addressing the rally, Fadnavis said, "In our manifesto along with introducing various welfare schemes for all sections of the society, the BJP has also announced schemes for open category students who do not get any reservations." He further added, "The open category will get the same number of seats which is used to get prior to 2018 (when Maratha quota was implemented). The number of seats will be increased and restored in various institutions (to pre-quota level). Hence, there will be no injustice to open category, OBC or students from any other section of the society."

Read: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis talks about $5 trillion economy

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BJP promises 1 crore jobs by 2022

The BJP in its manifesto for the upcoming Maharashtra polls also promised a USD 1 trillion economy for the state with the creation of 1 crore jobs in the next five years and houses for all by 2022. Other promises include setting a separate maintenance department for both national and state highways. The 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on October 21, and the counting of the polls will take place on October 24. Further, the elections will be concluded on October 27, as stated by the Chief Election Commission (CEC), Sunil Arora.

Read: Devendra Fadnavis speaks to Republic TV about his future aspirations

Read: Pramod Sawant: 'Fadnavis will retain his position as Chief Minister'

(WITH PTI INPUTS)