Karnataka: Pro-Maharashtra Activists Invite Ministers Chandrakant Patil And Shambhuraj Desai Of Shinde Cabinet To Belagavi

Fuelling the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute, pro-Maharashtra activists in Karnataka’s Belagavi have written a letter inviting Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai to come discuss various issues including border ones, even as the matter is due for hearing at the Supreme Court in two days.

In the letter addressed to Patil, who along with Desai was recently appointed to head a committee and work with a legal team on the border issue, the Madhyavarthi Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti asked them to come and meet activists and discuss various issues of Belagavi.

In response, Patil too took to Twitter to announce that Desai and him would visit Belagavi on 3 December and meet karyakartas in the region. ‘Let’s meet, a path will sure emerge out of discussion’ he added.

Meanwhile Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai told reporters today (28 November) that he would be visiting Delhi on 29 November to meet senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and union ministers to discuss border and developmental issues.

Speaking to media at the Mysuru airport today, Bommai said the case pertaining to the border dispute is due for hearing at the Supreme Court on 30 November. He refused to comment on the border areas of Maharashtra seeking inclusion into Karnataka saying ‘it is not correct to discuss the matter in public since it is pending in court’.

Karnataka has appointed former justice of the Supreme Court Shivaraj Patil as the chairman of the Karnataka Borders and River Protection Commission.

Addressing tge media after the meeting, Bommai said Karnataka is all set for a legal battle. He said discussion had been held on the developments in the matter since 2004 when Maharashtra filed a case and on various key issues that are likely to come up in the hearing on Wednesday.

He added that an all-party meeting will be fixed in consultation with Leaders of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly and the State Legislative Council.

The border row was raked up after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's announcement that a high-level delegation would soon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the long-pending border issue, on 21 November.

Shinde, in his earlier stint as health minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, had echoed similar sentiments.

In the days leading upto a bypoll in Belagavi the then Maharashtra CM, Uddhav Thackeray, had pledged to incorporate “Karnataka occupied Marathi speaking regions” back into the state as a tribute to those who laid their lives in the agitation for their inclusion earlier.