Belagavi border row: Raut asks MES to wait till SC order is out

Amid escalating tensions between Karnataka and Maharashtra over the Belagavi border issue, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut on Saturday asked members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti to wait till the issue is settled by the Supreme Court.

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Raut had reached Belagavi amid escalated tensions between Karnataka and Maharashtra over border dispute. "Since the matter (of Belagavi) is sub-judice, I ask the membersof Pro-Marathi leaders to wait for the Supreme Court verdict," he told reporters here.

He arrived at Belagavi a day after Maharashtra minister of state Rajendra Patil Yadravkar was detained by police and sent back to Maharashtra for attempting to take part at an event organised by MES in Belagavi. Lamenting that none from the MES got elected to the karnatAssembly, Raut reminded the MES members to unite.

He recalled that there was a time when six MES MLAs were get elected to the Assembly, whereas there were none today. Maharashtra claims Belagavi, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, but currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had in December 2019 appointed ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Eknath Shinde as co-ordinators to oversee his government's efforts to expedite the case related to the boundary dispute with Karnataka.

MES has been fighting for the merge of 800 odd villages with Maharasthra. On the differences between Shiv Senas former ally BJP, Raut said his party supported abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, but slammed the Centre for not handling the issue properly, as "even today the Kashmiri Pundits are refugees and bullets are still being fired."

He added that taking back Pakistan Occupied Kashmir has been on Shiv Senas agenda, but underlined that there was a need to look into its practicality. On the issue of CitizenshipAmendment Act, Raut clarified that his party opposes the law. He hailed the Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra government for handling the situation in Maharashtra 'tactfully' by holding disussions with Muslim community religious leaders. This effort resulted in no incident of riots in the state, he added.

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