The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which is spearheading the cause of Marathi-speaking people in Belagavi district of Karnataka, has decided to invite leaders of prominent political parties from Maharashtra including the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP to campaign for its candidates for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly election.
The MES has decided to field candidates from four Assembly constituencies where Marathi-speaking people are in majority: Belagavi North, Belagavi South, Belagavi Rural and Khanapur.
Names of finalised candidates to release shortly
The names of the candidates have been finalised and will be released shortly.
“At our meeting held a few days ago, we had decided to invite leaders of all political parties from Maharashtra to campaign for us… This is because political parties from Maharashtra have always supported our cause for merger. We want to see whether they really mean what they say,” Manohar Kinekar, working president of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, told The Indian Express.
MES has been demanding inclusion of border villages with Marathi-speaking population with Maharashtra
“Political parties – be it BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress or NCP – have always stood by Marathi-speaking people living in Belagavi and the neighbouring Bidar and Karwar. We have been demanding our merger with Maharashtra because of the constant harassment and atrocities of the Karnataka government in the name of language. It is forcing us to toe its line on the Kannada language,” said Prakash Margale, treasurer of MES.
The MES has been demanding the inclusion in Maharashtra of 865 villages, with mainly Marathi-speaking residents, from the border district of Belagavi and two other districts in Karnataka.
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