MUMBAI, March 25 -- Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Tuesday urged members of the Dhangar community to intensify their agitation for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, suggesting that a large-scale mobilisation in Mumbai would help push their demands.The Dhangars are currently listed as an Other Backward Class (OBC) in the central list and as a Nomadic Tribe (NT) in the state list. Giving tips to the Dhangar community members protesting at Azad Maidan for ST status, Jarange-Patil said the community would need to adopt a more aggressive but peaceful protest strategy to secure reservation under the ST category. Jarange-Patil is popular for his hunger strikes for securing Kunbi (OBC) certificates for the Maratha community, with the most recent one being the hunger strike in August-September 2025. The city witnessed an unprecedented political bandh. Train services were disrupted, bus services were diverted or curtailed and roads, including the Eastern Freeway, were blocked due to agitation, impacting all of South Mumbai for a few days. The strike was called off only after the state government released a Government Resolution (GR) in the community's favour. Describing chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as "khatarnak", Jarange-Patil boasted about how he persuaded Fadnavis to pass the Government Resolution (GR) on Maratha reservation and said he now enjoys good relations with the CM. "You can get your reservation in a day if all of you come together to Mumbai in large numbers," Jarange-Patil advised the protesters, adding that Marathas would also join the agitation when the Dhangar community decides to mobilise. "Merely fasting won't help," he told Deepak Borade, the Dhangar activist who was on his ninth day of hunger strike, suggesting a multi-pronged approach from getting workers to Mumbai and arranging food to getting all the political caste leaders to talk to them with the government. However, he said that care must be taken to ensure that the protest does not get violent or out of hand. "All of them should come together. No one should stay back in their villages. Come with a plan to not return till you get your demand met, Jarange advised. Jarange-Patil's visit to the protest site is being seen as part of a broader attempt to build social consolidation among Marathas, Dhangars, Muslims and Dalits in the state, amid what he described as attempts to create divisions between the Maratha and Dhangar communities. He stressed that unity among caste leadership was more important than political divisions and urged community leaders across parties to come together on the reservation issue. The Dhangar community has long been demanding inclusion in the ST category and has expressed dissatisfaction over what it claims are repeated assurances from the government since 2014 without concrete action. The hunger strike at Azad Maidan entered its ninth day on Tuesday but failed to get attention from the state, except for Congress president Harshavardhan Sapkal and a few others. Dhangar activist Deepak Borade, who is leading the hunger strike, is a former police constable who took voluntary retirement to campaign for Dhangar reservation. Borade said Jarange-Patil supported him during previous protests in Pandharpur and Solapur. "We have lost because the Central list mentions ST reservations for the Dhangad community, a spelling error that has cost us the benefits," explained Mahesh Bidgar, an activist. He added that the ST status would provide the community greater access to welfare benefits, protection under the Atrocities Act and a higher reservation quota....