Tensions over Belagavi are set to flare up further with the start of Karnataka legislature's 10-day winter session on Monday. Security has been heightened in the border area and at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, where the session is in progress. Section 144 was imposed in Belagavi amid fears of widespread protests.
According to reports, nearly 5,000 policemen have been deployed for maintaining law and order. Ahead of the session, more than 300 members of Shiv Sena, Congress, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were stopped at the border and sent back by Karnataka on Saturday, NDTV reported. NCP's Hasan Mushrif, and Shiv Sena's Kolhapur district president Vijay Devane, were detained while trying to enter Belagavi.
Activists of Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MMES) have planned massive protests ahead of the winter session of the Karnataka Assembly. Apart from the MMES, various groups including farmers, are also staging demonstrations in Belagavi. This is Karnataka's last winter session as the state goes to polls early next year.
In Maharashtra, too, the Belagavi issue is expected to rock the assembly session. Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Monday claimed Maharashtra was being misled over the issue of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's 'fake' Twitter handle amid the boundary dispute between the two states.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole also blamed the dispute on the Centre, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "dividing" the state. Last week, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Karnataka Chief Minister Bommai to discuss the tussle between the two states. The tussle has put the BJP in a difficult position—the saffron party is in power in Karnataka and has struck an alliance with the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena to form a government after unseating the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra.
The border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to 80 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.
-with PTI inputs