Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday demanded that the disputed districts along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border be brought under Centre’s rule till the Supreme Court decides on the issue.
Speaking in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Mr. Thackeray traded barbs with leaders of the rival Shiv Sena camp led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on the raging border issue.
Explained | What is the Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute?
Hitting out at Mr. Shinde’s ‘passiveness’, he said that while Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai was making one provocative statement after the other in an aggressive manner, why was the Maharashtra CM ‘reluctant’ to speak on the issue.
“The restraint that Maharashtra has been showing has not been reciprocated by Karnataka. The oppression of Marathi-speaking people in the border districts of Karnataka [Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani] continues unabated. It is pointless to pass resolutions in the Legislature,” Mr. Thackeray said, while at the same time censuring the Shinde-Fadnavis government’s ‘delay’ in passing a resolution on this issue.
The former CM, whose MVA government was toppled after Mr. Shinde split the Shiv Sena, further said that until the Supreme Court decided on the matter, the districts of Belagavi, Karwar, and Nippani – which have a significant Marathi-speaking population – ought to be declared a Union Territory.
“This demand should be added in the proposal that is to be passed in the State Legislature,” said Mr. Thackeray, who had termed these districts as ‘Karnataka-occupied-Maharashtra’ when he was CM.
Mr. Thackeray further said that he had submitted to the presiding officer a pen drive containing a film prepared in the 1970s along with documents giving proofs of the use of the Marathi language in the disputed districts since the 18th century in order to make the case as to why these districts ought to belong to Maharashtra.
Hitting out at Mr. Thackeray, BJP leader in the Legislative Council Pravin Darekar said the former CM had no right to comment on the ‘passiveness’ of Mr. Shinde given that the latter had had to endure jail in Belagavi while fighting for the rights of the Marathi-speaking populace there.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the Legislative Assembly that the resolution on the border issue had been delayed as CM Eknath Shinde had to go to Delhi on Monday.
