President of the women’s wing of the State Congress, Laxmi Hebbalkar, expressed regret over her remark hours after an audio clip of her speech, which touched upon the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, went viral and snowballed into a controversy.
The clip, allegedly from a speech she made earlier this week at a Belagavi village in a Ganesh pandal, shows her saying she would be the first to raise the “Jai Maharashtra” slogan if the Supreme Court gives its verdict for including Belagavi in Maharashtra.
Kannada activists and the Opposition BJP took strong exception to the remark and demanded action against her.
Meanwhile, KPCC president G. Parameshwara told reporters that the party was not contemplating any action against her as she had already expressed regret.
He said Ms. Hebbalkar’s statement did not reflect the party’s stand.
In her statement, Ms. Hebbalkar said, “I have great respect for my State. I have already expressed my regret if anybody has been offended by my speech.”
She further said, “My speech has been incorrectly interpreted as anti-regional, and there was absolutely no necessity or any inevitability for me to speak in this manner.”
