Congress leader Lakshmi Hebbalkar has courted controversy by saying she would support merger of some parts of Belagavi district with Maharashtra if the Supreme Court were to decide so.
At a Ganesh mandal in Basarikatti village in Belagavi taluk on August 27, the KPCC women's wing state president said she would be "the first to hold the flag of Maharashtra and raise slogans of 'Jai Maharashtra' if the SC were to rule in favor of the merger." An audio clip of her speech vent viral on social media with pro-Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti leaders and supporters forwarding it with comments such as "Now even a senior leader like Ms Hebbalkar supports our cause."
However, her speech, purportedly recorded at Basarikatti was barely audible. In her speech that starts with Marathi and ending with Hindi, she says she is concerned about nothing but the development of Belagavi rural constituency.
She claims she is not afraid of anyone except God and her parents. She alludes to herself in the third person and goes on to say that the case was in the Supreme Court now and if it were to approve of the merger, "Lakshmi Hebbalkar would be the first to raise the flag of Maharashtra and shout slogans of Jai Maharashtra."
'I was misunderstood'
Ms. Hebbalkar later clarified that she was being misunderstood. "I had meant that the people should not worry about issues like merger, but focus on development of the constituency.
"I only said that some Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti leaders were misleading the people by telling them that they would be happy in the neighboring State. I told them that the case about merger, filed in the SC itself was not valid. There was no chance of Belagavi going to Maharashtra at all. However, if the SC were to favour the merger, I would be the first to support it," she said.
"That was to make them realize the futility of the exercise," she told press persons later in the day.
'She was trying to appease Marathi speakers for votes'
But her clarification was not accepted by pro-Kannada agitators. "It is nothing but an attempt by her to appease the pro-Maharashtra voters,’’ said Ashok Chandargi, convenor of the forum of pro-Kannada agitation committees.
"First of all there was no need for her to raise the issue of Belagavi’s merger with Maharashtra in a Ganesh festival mandal. Even if she were to raise it, as a member of the ruling party, she should have stuck to the government’s stand that Marathi speakers will get all the facilities due from the government, but there will be no redrawing of boundaries.
"Secondly, her clarification that she was trying to tell the people that going to court over this issue is futile; is far from truth. If you listen to her speech carefully, you will make out that no where in here 15 minute speech does she make any attempt to say this. She is clearly trying to appease Marathi speakers for votes. It shows that she lacks commitment towards the cause. Such behaviour is completely unacceptable,’’ Mr Chandargi said.
"We have had leaders like B. Shankaranand and V. L Patil who had close association with Marathi speaking voters. But they remained steadfast in their commitment towards a unified Karnataka. Mr Patil had a large following among Marathi speakers and even gave speeches in Marathi. But after the 1985 riots, he publicly announced that those creating ruckus in the name of merger with Maharashtra would be kicked out of Belagavi. That kind of commitment and boldness is missing from today’s leaders," he said.
Ms. Hebbalkar lost to BJP's Sanjay Patil in 2013 Legislative Assembly polls. Mr. Patil was a supporter of the merger when he was in the Shiv Sena. He later joined the BJP.
