Mumbai: The continuing Maharashtra-Karnataka border row has sparked clashes between Maharashtra’s ruling and opposition alliances with either side attempting to indicate how they’re extra dedicated to the trigger than the opposite, and the 2 nationwide events on either side strolling a tightrope.
Maharashtra has had a long-standing demand for 814 villages alongside Maharashtra’s border and Belgaum (Belagavi) metropolis — all areas with a big Marathi-speaking inhabitants which might be at the moment a part of Karnataka — to be included within the state’s borders.
Members of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) — each a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alongside the Congress — staged agitations throughout Maharashtra Wednesday, defacing buses from Karnataka. MPs from each events additionally raised the difficulty within the Lok Sabha.
Alternatively, leaders of the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena claimed that that they had taken up the difficulty with Union Residence Minister Amit Shah Wednesday and emphasised that they wish to discover a resolution to the difficulty, and never “simply politicise it in contrast to the opposition.”
In the meantime, the 2 nationwide events on both facet — the BJP and the Congress — which must face meeting polls in Karnataka in 2023, tried to play a balancing act. Whereas BJP leaders talked a couple of speedy authorized resolution within the Supreme Court docket, the place the matter is sub judice, the Congress focused the BJP for the violent protests over the difficulty in each states.
The Congress was in energy in Maharashtra from 1999 to 2014 in alliance with the NCP. It was beneath the Congress-NCP administration that Maharashtra moved the Supreme Court docket to resolve the border row in 2004.
“The BJP is saying the identical issues now that the Congress used to say when it was in energy in Maharashtra and the border challenge would periodically flare up,” political analyst Hemant Desai advised ThePrint.
“When the Congress was in energy and there have been occasional tensions over the border battle, the BJP used to focus on the Congress, asking why it wasn’t resolving the difficulty regardless of having its personal authorities on the Centre. Now, the tables have turned,” he added.
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Shiv Sena (UBT) & NCP protest, Congress cautious
A day after autos from Maharashtra have been attacked on the Karnataka border allegedly by members of an outfit referred to as Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, members of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP Wednesday staged protests in Maharashtra’s cities similar to Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik, allegedly defacing autos from Karnataka.
MPs of the 2 events additionally took up the assaults on autos from Maharashtra on the Karnataka border in Parliament. Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi called for an adjournment of the Home over the difficulty, whereas NCP MP Supriya Sule raised the difficulty within the Lok Sabha Wednesday, looking for the Union authorities’s intervention.
“The CM of our neighbouring state, Karnataka, has been talking nonsense. Yesterday, individuals of Maharashtra needed to go to the Karnataka border, however they have been thrashed. The Karnataka CM is talking about disintegrating Maharashtra. Each states are BJP-ruled,” Sule mentioned, talking within the decrease home on the primary day of the winter session.
Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha chief, tweeted Wednesday saying Maharashtra was by no means as weak as it’s now and it has turn into “Delhi’s doormat.”
“Those that left the Shiv Sena citing self respect are sitting with locks on their mouths,” Raut mentioned.
MVA’s third ally, the Congress, nevertheless, gave a measured response on the battle, selecting to show the warmth on the BJP as a substitute.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole in a press release Wednesday mentioned, “It’s the BJP’s conspiracy to rake up the border battle and break Maharashtra. The BJP authorities in Karnataka is intentionally spoiling the atmosphere, and Marathi individuals and their belongings are being focused.”
The identical day, Congress MLC Satej Patil from the border city of Kolhapur advised reporters, “The Karnataka meeting polls are developing. It’s evident that the BJP goes to lose, in order that they (the BJP) are speaking concerning the border battle to vary the narrative.”
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‘All events ought to unite for an answer’
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde advised reporters Wednesday that he had already taken up the difficulty with Union Residence Minister Amit Shah, and had additionally spoken to Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, interesting to him for peace.
“I advised him (Bommai) he ought to take strict motion towards those that vandalised Maharashtra’s buses. We each mentioned that because the challenge is in SC there shouldn’t be any untoward incident,” Shinde mentioned.
He additionally met NCP chief Ajit Pawar on the difficulty, interesting to him for all events to unite on the difficulty, sources from the Shinde-led Sena faction advised ThePrint.
Rahul Shewale, MP from the Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, in the meantime, advised reporters {that a} delegation of the social gathering MPs deliberate on assembly Shah over the difficulty and that Maharashtra MPs from the Opposition must also ideally be part of.
“The Opposition’s job is to protest. We’re within the authorities and have some tasks,” Prataprao Jadhav, MP from the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, advised ThePrint.
“We’re very aggressive on this challenge, and our alliance with the BJP has not modified that. Actually, BJP leaders with us are additionally making the identical calls for as us. The MVA ought to reply why the Congress doesn’t wish to take a stand on the border row,” he added.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, nevertheless, mentioned the discord may solely be resolved in courtroom and that he would attraction to the Shinde-led Maharashtra authorities to jot down to the Supreme Court docket asking for a speedy listening to and backbone. “Earlier governments ought to have put a battery of legal professionals on the difficulty and located an answer, however they failed,” he mentioned.
“One has to indicate restraint whereas working within the authorities. The CM and DCM (deputy CM) are displaying restraint, “ he added.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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