BELAGAVI: Hitting out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for raking up the boundary issue again, Belagavi district in-charge minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on Wednesday said, “It is Shiv Sena’s agenda to provoke and mislead people. After failing on all fronts, Thackeray and Sena are raising the issue to gain people’s sympathy.’’Thackeray, launching a controversial book on the boundary dispute in Mumbai on Wednesday, said, “We will not rest until we win the boundary dispute case. If the long-pending issue is not resolved during this (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government’s tenure, it will never be.”
He alleged that Marathi-speaking people in border areas are being subjected to atrocities and said Marathi-majority areas in Karnataka should be merged with Maharashtra.Jarkiholi said that leaders from across parties in the state are united on the boundary issue and there is no need to panic.Textiles Minister Shrimant Patil, who hails from Sangli in Maharashtra, said that the boundary dispute is a closed chapter, but some leaders are keeping it alive for political gains. “The popularity of Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti has waned. The Samiti and its agenda have no significance in border areas,” he added.
Thackeray, on Karnataka leaders terming the book and his recent tweets on the boundary issue as contempt of court, said, “When the case is being heard in the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government renames Belgaum, declares it as its second capital, constructs a Legislature building and holds a legislature session there. Isn’t this contempt of court?”
The new 530-page book, ‘Maharashtra-Karnataka Seemavad: Sangharsh Aani Sankalp’ (Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute: struggle and pledge), gives an account of the boundary dispute between the two states.
Former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy told The New Indian Express, “It was 14 years ago, during my tenure as chief minister that we held the first legislature session in Belagavi. We had already declared it as the second capital. I remember that we worked overtime, made the preparations in 10 days flat and managed to hold the session.” In a series of tweets on the sensitive issue, he said, “(Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav) Thackeray has so many priority issues as CM to attend to. Why is he talking about this.’’ He said the Congress, which is supporting Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, should take up this issue.
