Karnataka holds Legislature session in Belgaum

The coalition Government in Karnataka made history yesterday by holding the state’s first-ever legislature session out of the state capital of Bangalore in the far-away border town of Belgaum.

For the first time in its history, the state secretariat shifted out of Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Belgaum, where the five-day special session of the Karnataka Legislature began on Monday.

However, the historic Assembly session got off to a noisy start with Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) MLAs Digambar Patil and Manohar Kinekar voicing protest against the Karnataka Government’s decision to hold the legislature session in Belgaum at a time when the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka was pending before Supreme Court.

Soon, the two MES legislators, donning the saffron headgears, began raising slogans for merger of Belgaum and other Marathi dominated areas of the border district with Maharashtra.

Immediately, Kannada protagonist and independent MLA Vatal Nagaraj got up rushed towards the MES MLAs shouting slogans and waving a black flag. Even as Speaker Krishna appealed to the protesting members to resume their seats, Vatal Nagaraj stood amidst the slogan-shouting MES members and waved the black flag.

The two MES members later staged a walk-out protesting against the “dictatorial” attitude of the Karnataka Government against Marathi-speaking population of Belgaum.

The Assembly was, however, adjourned for the day after passing obituary references to Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan, folklorist S K Karim Khan, former Ministers L G Havanur and Puttaswamy Gowda, besides the victims of Malegaon bomb blasts.

Meanwhile, a few kilometers away from venue of the legislature session in Belgaum, the MES held a parallel session attended by thousands of Marathi-speaking people to oppose the Karnataka Government’s decision to hold a legislature session in Belgaum.

Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, who is also a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, addressed a large gathering of Marathi-speaking people at Lele grounds in Belgaum.

The MES rally, dubbed as Maha Melavu or a huge convention, by the organizers had attracted people from not only Marathi-dominated areas of Belgaum, but also from across the border in Maharashtra.

The MES convention resolved to appeal to the Maharashtra Government to approach the Federal Government once again to seek the merger of Belgaum with Maharashtra.
The border town of Belgaum resembled a fortress under siege with thousands of lathi-wielding policemen deployed both at the Legislature session venue as well as the Lele Grounds, where the MES held a mammoth rally.