The Maratha versus OBC tussle over reservation has intensified in poll-bound Maharashtra, sending ripples of concern through the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

Two OBC activists, Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare, “suspended” their week-long hunger strike on Friday after the Eknath Shinde-led government assured their delegation to resolve the issues at the earliest. The main demand of the two activists is that the Marathas should not be given reservation under the OBC quota.

The OBC protest was a counter to a similar hunger strike led by Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil, insisting that the community be recognised as backward and given reservation under the OBC quota.

Patil, who started a hunger strike on June 8, “suspended” his agitation on June 14 after the government promised to fulfil his demand to issue OBC certificates to blood relatives of Marathas who have produced Kunbi-caste-related documents.

Soon after the government’s assurance to Patil, the OBC activists started their hunger strike in the same Jalna district.

The Opposition suspects that the OBC agitation was indirectly fuelled by the government to avoid fulfilling Patil’s demand. The Shinde government has passed a law to give a separate 10 per cent reservation to the Marathas but it has been rejected as an “eyewash”.

The Maratha reservation agitation is believed to have inflicted heavy damage to the ruling Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP, in the Lok Sabha polls in the Marathwada region. The Mahayuti lost seven of the eight seats in the region owing to the consolidation of Maratha voters against them. Overall, too, the ruling alliance fared badly, managing to win just 17 of the total 48 seats in the western state.

BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde, daughter of late OBC stalwart Gopinath Munde, has come out in solidarity with the two OBC activists. On Saturday, Munde urged the Shinde government to find a “lasting constitutional solution” by holding talks with both sides.

The ruling Mahayuti fears that the Maratha stir could cost them dearly in the Assembly polls in October. The OBCs are seen as the BJP’s support base and the party strategists are negotiating the issue in a way to retain their support.

Patil has warned to restart his agitation if his demand is not fulfilled by July 13 and threatened to field candidates in all the 288 Assembly segments in the state. If he does so, the damage due to the division of Maratha votes would mostly be borne by the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.