Maharashtra has never been so embarrassed: Sanjay Raut calls border row ‘Delhi’s conspiracy’

Sanjay Raut said the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute is a Delhi-engineered conspiracy to hurt Marathi pride.

Amid the escalating border issue between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday alleged Centre’s hand behind the attack on Maharashtra vehicled in Belagavi and said the attack is not possible without New Delhi’s support. Questioning the silence of those who joined Eknath Shinde to topple the Uddhav-led government, Raut said indeed a ‘revolution’ took place three months ago — the game of ending Marathi self-esteem by breaking the backbone.

“Without Delhi’s support, Maharashtra vehicles and people cannot be attacked in Belgaum. The attacks are part of the same conspiracy. Get up Marathis!” he tweeted.

On Tuesday, trucks from Maharashtra were stopped and attacked in Belagavi on the border of the two states following which the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation suspended its bus services to Karnataka. “A call to resume services will be taken after a clearance from police about the safety and security of the passengers and the buses,” a government official said.

In a broadside against the attack in Belagavi, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) workers claimed to have painted four Karnataka buses in Pune with ‘Jai Maharashtra’.

The escalation prompted Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to speak to Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. It has been agreed that both states would maintain peace but no state has changed their stance regarding the claim on the border villages which are at the centre of the dispute.

Bommai recently sought a merger of “Kannada-speaking” areas in Maharashtra’s Akkalkot and Solapur and had also said some villages in Jat taluka in Sangli district wanted to join the southern state. “Since there is a harmonious relationship between the people of both the states, however, there is no change in our stand as far as the Karnataka border is concerned. And the legal battle will be pursued in Supreme court,” tweeted Bommai.

Devendra Fadnavis urged Maharashtra people to not react and said he will speak with Union home minister Amit Shah.