Politicos jump in to score brownie Points

Mumbai: Almost all political parties rushed to take advantage of Monday’s rail roko. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have supported the agitation of railway apprentices and met railway minister Piyush Goyal to press their demands. To counter Opposition parties, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya met with Mr Goyal in Delhi. Later, he announced that all issues had been resolved.

The railway minister, however, is not ready to increase the existing 20 per cent quota in recruitment, senior leaders said. 

As the agitation flared up, political leaders generously gave bytes to private channels while MPs rushed to meet Mr Goyal. NCP leader Supriya Sule extended support to the apprentices and slammed the government. She assured them she would talk with Mr Goyal. Sena MPs Anand Adsul, Arvind Sawant and Shrikant Shinde among others met Mr Goyal immediately. 

Mr Sawant told The Asian Age, “We discussed the issue with Mr Goyal. The Railways has given apprentices a 20 per cent quota and 90,000 posts will be filled up. It is not possible to increase it because 1,00,40,000 candidates have applied for these posts.”

MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande rushed on the spot while party chief Raj Thackeray extended his support to the agitators. MNS leaders Bala Nandgaonkar and Nitin Sardesai will meet Mr Goyal in Delhi on Tuesday with the agitators’ representatives.