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MVA grills Eknath Shinde & BJP over border row with Karnataka, CM invokes ‘Maharashtra’s pride’

Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar says Karnataka is taking to 'autocracy' by stopping an MP from visiting Belagavi. Both CM & his deputy assert Maharashtra is with 'our people'.

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Mumbai: The border row dominated the first day of the winter session of the Maharashtra assembly as the opposition parties Monday alleged that the Eknath Shinde-led coalition government was in cahoots with its Karnataka counterpart and demanded that the details of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s talks with the two chief ministers be made public.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress, slammed the Maharashtra government for not raising its voice against “objectionable” tweets of Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, which the latter had claimed were fake.

They also questioned why Lok Sabha MP Dhairyasheel Mane of the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena wasn’t allowed to visit Belgaum despite talks on 14 December with Shah where he supposedly brokered peace between the two states.

Briefing the media at the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Nagpur, Congress leader Ashok Chavan questioned the Maharashtra government’s silence over the episode. It seemed that the Maharashtra government was helping Karnataka to brush aside the controversy over the issue of the ‘fake’ Twitter account from which “provocative comments” were made, the former chief minister.

In late November, Bommai had stirred controversy after tweeting that his BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government was “seriously considering” a resolution to include Jat taluka in western Maharashtra’s Sangli district in Karnataka.

Bommai further tweeted stating that Solapur city and Akkalkot (in Solapur district) ought to part of Karnataka as well.

But when both the chief ministers met Union Home minister Amit Shah in Delhi last Wednesday, Bommai said those tweets are fake. After the meeting, Shah had told the media that the two chief ministers had agreed not to make any claims and counterclaims on the border issue till the Supreme Court decides on the matter.


Also Read: Assemblies raring for a fight, Maharashtra-Karnataka border row isn’t cooling down this winter


Opposition pile up attack inside & outside House

Earlier in the day, the opposition questioned the Maharashtra government’s stand on border row both inside and outside of the assembly.

Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar claimed in the House that Mane was stopped from going to Belgaum by Karnataka and this happened despite the Union Home minister holding talks with both CMs. “This has happened despite a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. How can an elected representative be stopped from going anywhere?” Pawar said.

The district administration had banned Mane from entering Belagavi, he claimed.

Mane had sought permission to take part in a protest held by Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belagavi on Monday but the Lok Sabha member from Hatkanangle was stopped from going there.

“The country still has democracy and a Constitution, and anyone can go anywhere. By stopping an elected representative, the Karnataka government is restoring to autocracy and the state government should stand firmly behind the Marathi-speaking population,” said Pawar.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that there should not be any politics on the border row. “For the first time, the Union Home Minister has mediated in the inter-state border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka. There should be no politics on this issue now. The issue is of Maharashtra’s pride, and we have taken a strong stand on this,” Shinde said inside the assembly.

“The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti is protesting today. There shouldn’t be politics on this. There are other issues over which we can do politics. We have information from the police who are the villagers who want to join Karnataka and who is behind them. We are with our people,” he added.

Shinde informed the members that during the meeting with Shah, “we told Bommai that whatever you are tweeting isn’t right to which he said that that wasn’t his Twitter handle.”

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, too, claimed that the tweets were from fake handles and “we will ask them what have they done (regarding the fake tweets and whether they found anyone who was responsible for those tweets)”.

Fadnavis assured that he would speak with the Karnataka government over what happened on Monday. “The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti had organised a protest today but Karnataka denied the permission and did not let our leaders go there. We will speak to the Karnataka government over this. The protest was going to be peaceful, there was no need to stop it. We are with our people,” he told the media outside the assembly.

(Edited by Tony Rai)


Also Read: Vehicles targeted, Fadnavis calls Bommai — BJP in tight spot as Karnataka-Maharashtra row escalates


 

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