Boundaries of Maharashtra are hotting up ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
While the boundary dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka and the Babhali barrage issues might have consolidated the state cutting across the party line, the Centre is unwilling to intervene in it at this juncture.
The Shiv Sena has decided to raise the boundary dispute issue in the two Houses of Parliament in the name of atrocities on the linguistic minorities.
This was clearly indicated by its leaders Manohar Joshi and Anant Geete on Sunday.
The NCP and the Shiv Sena are unlikely to soften their stand on this issue. In fact, their leaders are actively participating in the agitation against the Karnataka government.
But the state Congress may not be aggressive while the BJP will find it difficult to criticise its own government in Karnataka in Parliament.
The pace of developmental activities in the border districts of Karnataka has been very slow, especially in Gulbarg and Bidar. The roads there (Gulbarg to Omerga and Bidar to Nilanga) continued to be single lane.
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and former Union minister A.R. Antulay had a long meeting on Saturday on the boundary dispute issue. Mr Thackeray appealed to Mr Antulay to come together on the border row.
The Sena has already demanded to make the disputed region into a Union Territory until the Supreme Court settles the issue.
Meanwhile, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said here on Sunday that he wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to advise the Maharashtra government to judiciously handle the situation arising out of the row over Belgaum bordering the two states.
Condemning the incident in Kolhapur in Maharashtra in which Kannadigas were attacked, Mr Yeddyurappa said: “I requested the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and advise Maharashtra government to handle the situation judiciously.” “Our stand on the Belgaum issue is very clear. I have repeatedly said that Belgaum is an integral part of Karnataka and will remain so. The Mahajan Commission report is final,” he told reporters. Appealing to Marathis and Kannadigas to exercise restraint, he said: “we are Indians first, Kannadigas and Marathis later.”
The boundary issue came to the fore again with Mr Chavan demanding Union Territory status to disputed areas and his Karnataka counterpart denying even the existence of a dispute. But he did not raise this before Congress chief Sonia Gandhi here on Saturday.