Why Marathi voters will play vital role in polling around Maharashtra-Karnataka border
The decades-old border dispute gained momentum last October with the Maharashtra government resolving to extend a health insurance scheme to the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka
It is not a campaign issue in the ongoing Lok Sabha election but the border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka is expected to still cast a shadow in at least two constituencies in the southern state.
Residents and political analysts say the long-standing dispute will play a role in the Kittur Karnataka region, comprising the constituencies of Belagavi and Chikkodi. Uttara Kannada is likely to be impacted too.
The Maharashtra Ekikarana Samithi (MES), which advocates the merger of Marathi-speaking areas in Karnataka with Maharashtra, suffered a humiliating rout in last year’s Karnataka Assembly elections. But it is contesting the Lok Sabha battle to again test the electoral water.
As many as 13 independent candidates are contesting from the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency, including Mahadev Patil of the MES. Niranjan Desai is an independent candidate representing the MES in Uttara Kannada seat.
Marathi voters
So, which way will the Maratha community votes swing?
“Traditionally Marathi voters on the (Karnataka-Maharashtra) border have been BJP supporters. So, every vote going to the MES will directly impact prospects of the BJP and will help Congress this time,” says a senior Congress leader in Uttara Kannada.
In the by-election to the Belagavi Lok Sabha seat in 2021, MES candidate Shubham Shelke bagged 1.16 lakh votes. In the process, BJP candidate Mangala Angadi scraped through with about 4,000 votes against Satish Jarkiholi of the Congress.
According to Marathi journalists’ of Belagavi, the MES may jeopardise the chances of BJP candidate Jagadish Shettar in Belagavi.
In some Assembly constituencies that come under the Mumbai-Karnataka region, MES candidates have been able to scoop a sizable number of votes, tripping the BJP.
Backing BJP
But senior journalist Rishikesh Bahadur Desai says the MES seems to be facing some problems.
“One faction of the MES led by Shivaji Suntakar has announced support to the BJP in Belagavi. He has refused to associate himself with Mahadev Patil, the MES candidate in Belagavi,” Desai said.
Suntakar thinks that MES’ ultimate motto of merging Marathi-speaking areas with Maharashtra would be fulfilled if they support the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Suntakar is also at home with the Hindutva ideology.
Undeterred by Suntakar’s stand, Mahadev Patil has been distributing pamphlets with slogans like “Har Har Mahadev, Har Har Mahadev”. He has declared that MES would fight for the cause of Marathi, without worrying about political hurdles and differences.
Even in January 2024, much before the announcement of elections to Lok Sabha, Maharashtra MP Dhairyasheel Mane raked up the border row at a meeting in Belagavi.
Whatever others may say, the MES will not leave any stone unturned to keep the dispute alive in every election.
The history
Even after 68 years of the reorganisation of the states, the row between Maharashtra and Karnataka continues unabated. Since 1956, Maharashtra has claimed its right over Belagavi.
Maharashtra strongly objected to the second State Reorganisation Commission in 1956 headed by Justice Fazal Ali which included Belagavi in Karnataka.
After nearly a decade, the Union government set up a Commission headed by Mehr Chand Mahajan, a former Supreme Court judge. It too did not agree with the demand to merge Belagavi with Maharashtra. Naturally, Maharashtra rejected the proposal too.
The decades-old border dispute gained momentum last October with the Maharashtra government resolving to extend a health insurance scheme to the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka.
Karnataka objected to it, saying implementing the scheme of one state in another is against the federal system.
Staking claim
Similarly, in November 2022, tensions mounted between Karnataka and Maharashtra after then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray asked his legal teams in the Supreme Court to stake claim on several areas coming under Karnataka’s fold.
This happened after people in 40 villages in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, mostly inhabited by Kannadigas, expressed a desire to merge their areas with Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Ashok Chandaragi, president of the Belagavi District Kannada Organisations Action Committee, has sought an explanation from the Congress government in Karnataka on its stand on resolving the border issue.
