Shiv Sena chief cooks up K'taka-Maharashtra row

EDITED FOR IMPACT: Shiv Sena chief alleges Maharashtrians being harassed in Karnataka.

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New Delhi: Shiv Sena’s ally the BJP will be shocked by this. Sena chief Bal Thackeray has alleged that the police in Karnataka is harassing Maharashtrians.

Karnataka goes to polls next week and the BJP is among the top parties in the state. Thackeray, in an editorial in his party’s newspaper Saamna, has made comments which are bound to create a controversy in Karnataka.

“Our Kannadiga brethren in Maharashtra have gained a lot from this state. Their hotel businesses have thrived. On Maharashtra day (on May 1), they should have thought of their fellow Maharashtrians in neighbouring Karnataka who are suffering from the atrocities of the Karnataka police machinery,” said Thackeray in the editorial.

“If the Maharashtrians make these demands, they will immediately be labeled as regionalist,” he said.

Thackeray attacked Congress leaders S M Krishna, former governor of Maharashtra who is contesting elections in Karnataka, and Margaret Alva and accused them of coming to Maharashtra to “loot”.

“Krishna comes here as Governor, and Margaret Alva comes to Mumbai to loot it, but they do not demand that the Karnataka government hand over (to Maharashtra) disputed places,” he said.

Thackeray said the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra must solve the border row with Karnataka, particularly the demands to include Karwar and Belgaum in Maharashtra. “A lot of blood has been spilt for the last 50 years on this issue, but so far no solution has been reached.”

Thackeray’s editorial was published on a day his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray, chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, is scheduled to hold a public rally in Mumbai in the evening. Raj, who in February led a campaign against north Indians in Maharashtra, will announce the strategy of his two-year-old party at the rally.