Certificate showing Sharad Pawar's caste as OBC goes viral, NCP calls it fake

A certificate showing Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar as belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category has gone viral. This development comes amid the ongoing demand for Maratha reservation in Maharashtra.

However, NCP leader and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule has refuted claims made in the certificate and called it fake. "This is someone's childishness. When Sharad Pawar was studying in class 10, were there English medium schools? People should think about that," she said.

The viral certificate mentioned Pawar's details in English.

Pawar’s supporter Vikas Pasalkar also rubbished the claims that the NCP supremo belonged to the OBC category. He produced a school leaving certificate that shows Pawar's caste as 'Maratha'.

"A conspiracy is being hatched to defame a big leader like Sharad Pawar, using such fake certificates. The NCP will not tolerate this," Pasalkar told India Today TV.

The leaving certificate shared by Pasalkar is from a school in Pune's Baramati district. It says that Sharad Pawar passed the SSC exam in March, 1958.

The demand for a reservation for the Marathas recently led to raging violence across Maharashtra. Maratha community members staged widespread protests across the state demanding reservations in government jobs and education.

On November 2, Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange agreed to end his indefinite fast. He appealed to the state government not to carry out recruitment till reservations is allotted to Marathas.