Border row between Maha and Karnataka escalates

Bengaluru/Mumbai: The border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra over claims for Belagavi in the southern state intensified on Tuesday, with vehicles from either sides being targeted, leaders from both states weighing in and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists being detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in the border district.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar termed the situation in the border areas of the two states as "worrisome", and said the time has come to take a stand after seeing what is happening there.

"Maharashtra has taken a stand of observing patience and it is still ready to do that. But even that has a limit. In 24 hours, if the attacks on vehicles are not stopped then this patience will take a different path and the responsibility will be completely on the Karnataka chief minister and the Karnataka government," Pawar told reporters in Mumbai.

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai asserted his government's commitment to protect the borders and ensure Kannadigas' welfare and denied the issue had anything to do with the 2023 Assembly polls in the state, where the ruling BJP is fancying a successive term.

In Bengaluru, Bommai denied the issue had anything to do with the 2023 Assembly polls in the state.

"There is no relationship with upcoming assembly elections and Karnataka's stand on the border issue. For many years now, it is Maharashtra that has been raking up the issue," he said.

Maharashtra has raised the dispute and there is reaction from Karnataka, he added. Speaking to reporters, he maintained there is harmony between people of both states and it should not be disturbed.

A Maharashtra ministerial delegation that was supposed to visit Belagavi and hold discussions with a pro-Marathi group postponed its schedule while Kannada organisations staged a protest in the district in a show of strength.