Won't give even an inch of land to Maharashtra, says Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

Won't give even an inch of land to Maharashtra, says Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

Bommai said that Karnataka's stand on the border issue was “very clear”, and the state was not going to yield for anything

Staff ReporterUpdated: Monday, May 02, 2022, 11:49 PM IST
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Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai | Photo Credit: PTI

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday urged the Maha Vikas Aghadi government not to use “language bogey or border issue for their political survival”, as he made it clear that his state will not give “even an inch of its land to Maharashtra”. Noting that several Kannada speaking areas were in Maharashtra, he said the thinking is on about incorporating them into Karnataka. He was responding to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's statement on Sunday that the government will continue to support the fight of the Marathi-speaking people residing in border areas of Karnataka to include those places in Maharashtra.

“There is a political crisis in Maharashtra,” Bommai said, “It is there now, their entire government is at the rock bottom; so they create a language bogey and raise the border issue. To survive politically, they do this.”

Bommai said that Karnataka's stand on the border issue was “very clear”, and the state was not going to yield for anything. “We stand firmly by our decisions. They (Maharashtra) also know it. I strongly urge the politicians of Maharashtra not to use language bogey or border issue for their political survival,” he said, adding that there was no question of giving even an inch of Karnataka's land.

Maharashtra claims the border district of Belagavi and nearby areas were part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, but is currently a part of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds. “While we are celebrating 62 years of formation of Maharashtra, we regret that the Marathi-speaking villages in Bidar, Bhalki, Belgaum, Karwar, Nippani and other places in Karnataka could not be merged with Maharashtra. The citizens of Maharashtra and its government are with their fight to be a part of Maharashtra. I assure you that we would keep supporting their fight till these villages become part of Maharashtra,” Pawar had said on Maharashtra's foundation day on Sunday. The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which has been fighting in the border areas of Belagavi for the merger of 800-odd villages with Maharashtra, had also some time ago submitted a memorandum of their demands to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

On its part as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of the state, Karnataka has built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat in Bengaluru, where the legislature session is held once a year.

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