The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi is gearing up for organising “Maha Melava” - a parallel people’s session of the Marathi linguistic community - on the first day of the winter session of the State legislature here on November 21.
Senior MES leaders Sambhaji L. Patil, MLA (Belagavi South) and Deepak Dalvi, who submitted a request-letter seeking permission to organise the event to the Police Commissioner Krishna Bhat here on Thursday, said the venue of the Melava had not been decided yet.“We will get the stage ready for the event within 24 hours once the permission is granted,” he said.
Mr. Patil said the MES’s Maha Melava was not new. It was being organised ever since the State government started conducting the legislature session in Belagavi. The Maha Melava was never organised as long as the legislature sessions were being held in Bengaluru. Since these legislatures sessions were being organised in Belagavi city with the claim that Belagavi was an integral part of Karnataka even as the Supreme Court was yet to deliver its verdict on the ‘boundary dispute’, the MES was left with little option but to protest by organising the event, he said.
The MES was opposed to holding of the legislature session till the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the boundary dispute, which included the question of Belagavi city also, he said.
He said his candidature as Congress candidate for the legislative assembly seat was rejected in the past. After returning to MES, the Marathi speaking people extended full support for his successful election three years ago. “Therefore, if my people want me to boycott the winter session, I will honour their sentiments,” he said.
