As Maharashtra’s alliances spar over border row with Karnataka, BJP & Congress walk tightrope

Mumbai: The ongoing Maharashtra-Karnataka border row has sparked clashes between Maharashtra’s ruling and opposition alliances with both sides trying to show how they are more committed to the cause than the other, and the two national parties on both sides walking a tightrope.

Maharashtra has had a long-standing demand for 814 villages along Maharashtra’s border and Belgaum (Belagavi) city — all areas with a large Marathi-speaking population that are currently part of Karnataka — to be included in the state’s borders.

On the other hand, leaders of the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena claimed that they had taken up the issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah Wednesday and emphasised that they want to find a solution to the issue, and not “just politicise it unlike the opposition.”

Meanwhile, the two national parties on either side — the BJP and the Congress — which have to face assembly polls in Karnataka in 2023, tried to play a balancing act. While BJP leaders talked about a speedy legal solution in the Supreme Court, where the matter is sub judice, the Congress targeted the BJP for the violent protests over the issue in both states.

The Congress was in power in Maharashtra from 1999 to 2014 in alliance with the NCP. It was under the Congress-NCP administration that Maharashtra moved the Supreme Court to resolve the border row in 2004.

“The BJP is saying the same things now that the Congress used to say when it was in power in Maharashtra and the border issue would periodically flare up,” political analyst Hemant Desai told ThePrint.

“When the Congress was in power and there were occasional tensions over the border conflict, the BJP used to target the Congress, asking why it wasn’t resolving the issue despite having its own government at the Centre. Now, the tables have turned,” he added.

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Shiv Sena (UBT) & NCP protest, Congress cautious

A day after vehicles from Maharashtra were attacked at the Karnataka border allegedly by members of an outfit called Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, members of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP Wednesday staged protests in Maharashtra’s cities such as Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik, allegedly defacing vehicles from Karnataka.

MPs of the two parties also took up the attacks on vehicles from Maharashtra at the Karnataka border in Parliament. Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi called for an adjournment of the House over the issue, while NCP MP Supriya Sule raised the issue in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, seeking the Union government’s intervention.

“The CM of our neighbouring state, Karnataka, has been speaking nonsense. Yesterday, people of Maharashtra wanted to go to the Karnataka border, but they were thrashed. The Karnataka CM is speaking about disintegrating Maharashtra. Both states are BJP-ruled,” Sule said, speaking in the lower house on the first day of the winter session.

Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha leader, tweeted Wednesday saying Maharashtra was never as weak as it is now and it has become “Delhi’s doormat.”

“Those who left the Shiv Sena citing self respect are sitting with locks on their mouths,” Raut said.

MVA’s third ally, the Congress, however, gave a measured reaction on the conflict, choosing to turn the heat on the BJP instead.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole in a statement Wednesday said, “It is the BJP’s conspiracy to rake up the border conflict and break Maharashtra. The BJP government in Karnataka is deliberately spoiling the environment, and Marathi people and their belongings are being targeted.”

The same day, Congress MLC Satej Patil from the border town of Kolhapur told reporters, “The Karnataka assembly polls are coming up. It is evident that the BJP is going to lose, so they (the BJP) are talking about the border conflict to change the narrative.”

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‘All parties should unite for a solution’

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde told reporters Wednesday that he had already taken up the issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and had also spoken to Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, appealing to him for peace.

“I told him (Bommai) he should take strict action against those who vandalised Maharashtra’s buses. We both discussed that since the issue is in SC there should not be any untoward incident,” Shinde said.

He also met NCP leader Ajit Pawar on the issue, appealing to him for all parties to unite on the issue, sources from the Shinde-led Sena faction told ThePrint.

Rahul Shewale, MP from the Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, meanwhile, told reporters that a delegation of the party MPs planned on meeting Shah over the issue and that Maharashtra MPs from the Opposition should also ideally join.

“The Opposition’s job is to protest. We are in the government and have some responsibilities,” Prataprao Jadhav, MP from the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, told ThePrint.

“We are very aggressive on this issue, and our alliance with the BJP has not changed that. In fact, BJP leaders with us are also making the same demands as us. The MVA should answer why the Congress doesn’t want to take a stand on the border row,” he added.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, however, said the discord could only be resolved in court and that he would appeal to the Shinde-led Maharashtra government to write to the Supreme Court asking for a speedy hearing and resolution. “Earlier governments should have put a battery of lawyers on the issue and found a solution, but they failed,” he said.

“One has to show restraint while working in the government. The CM and DCM (deputy CM) are showing restraint, “ he added.

(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)

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