Restaurants in Maharashtra must serve Maharashtrian food: Athawale

Mumbai, May 16: RPI chief Ramdas Athawale today threatened to launch a protest against those restaurants in the state that do not serve Maharashtrian cuisine.

"It is necessary for restaurant owners to understand the importance of traditional Marathi cuisine in our state. Hotels today serve all kinds of food except traditional food items. This is not right. I will speak to the restaurant owners about this and hope they will start respecting the sentiments of Marathi people," Athawale told reporters here.

He said he would meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to convey the sentiments of the people to him and added that he expected the state government to "whole-heartedly support the Marathi cause".

"If, within 15 days the restaurant owners do not meet our demands, we will start a sustained and intense agitation against the hotel owners in this regard," he said.

When asked if his party was trying to hijack the issue of Marathi pride raised by parties like Shiv Sena and MNS, Athawale said, "It is not about Marathis and non-Marathis. It is not even a question of politics. We cannot undermine the taste of our people."

While replying to another query, Athawale said the Chief Minister has failed to keep his promise of sharing 10 per cent power in the state government with allies.

"Out of the 10 per cent, the RPI should at least get five per cent share. There should be ministers representing our parties in the government. The CM has failed to keep his word until now. We will not let him go back on his words," he said.

PTI