MUMBAI, Sept. 14 -- The conflict between the Maratha and OBC communities has taken a turn, with parents from both communities deciding to withdraw their children from schools run by leaders of the other community. In Rasingaon, a village in Nanded district in Marathwada, parents of 21 Maratha students submitted a joint letter to the principal of the Meenatai Thackeray Primary School on Friday, stating that they wanted to cancel the admission of their children . They also demanded that the school issue school-leaving certificates for their wards. The institution is a residential school run by local OBC leader, Manohar Dhonde, president of the Virshaiv Shiva Sanghatana, which promotes the cause of the Lingayat community. Dhonde recently moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the government resolution (GR) granting Kunbi status to Marathas on the basis of the Hyderabad Gazetteer, opening the door to further OBC reservations for Marathas. Dhonde said, "Parents are pulling out their children from our school due to my petition in court, but it's part of a conspiracy led by certain Maratha leaders. They should never have stooped so low, using students and schools for quota politics. The minds of students should not be poisoned for caste politics." Marathwada is ground zero for the conflict between the two communities. Maratha quota leader Manoj Jarange-Patil hails from Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district in Marathwada, and the Hyderabad Gazetteer, in the spotlight after Jarange-Patil's recent agitation in Mumbai, covers this region, once under the rule of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. But the OBC community in Rasingaon is punching back. After the bold move by Maratha parents, OBC parents in the village have announced their decision to withdraw students in large numbers from the JaI Maharashtra Madhyamik Vidyalaya run by a Maratha leader. Rasingaon, a village in Loha taluka in Nanded, is dominated by the OBC community. Hundreds of villagers attended two meetings on Friday and Saturday evening , and decided to "give a fitting reply" to Maratha parents, by taking a decision to cancel the admission of OBC children from the JaI Maharashtra Madhyamik Vidyalaya. Developments like these are unprecedented in Maharashtra and could affect the social fabric of the state, say political analysts. Govind Habgunde, a villager from the OBC community in Rasingaon said, "How could we not react? Even though we (OBCs) account for 80% of the population of the 6,500 people in the village, social harmony has prevailed all these years, and everyone is considered equal." Habgunde said the Maratha boycott of the OBC-run school has hurt them deeply, and the OBC community may take further measures to step up their agitation. Political analyst Abhaykumar Dandage warned that the Maratha-OBC rift is set to deepen, citing school admission withdrawals as only one of many troubling instances of the conflict. "OBC villagers are being denied credit in shops and dairies run by Marathas and vice-versa. This has been happening in many villages in Marathwada," he said. Similar clashes between the two communities took place last year after the results of the Lok Sabha elections in May....