Belgavi civic polls: MES suffers defeat, BJP takes control of civic body

PUNE The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) fighting for merger of Marathi-speaking border areas of Karnataka into Maharashtra, won only three of 58 seats, while the BJP managed to clinch 36 seats in the Belgavi City Corporation polls

PUNE The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) fighting for merger of Marathi-speaking border areas of Karnataka into Maharashtra, won only three of 58 seats, while the BJP managed to clinch 36 seats in the Belgavi City Corporation polls. The counting of votes was held on Monday.

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MES, whose candidates contested as independents since the outfit is not recognised as a political party by election commission (EC) along with other parties had previously controlled the civic body. This is its second successive loss after a poor showing in the recently held Lok Sabha bypolls and has put question marks on its support base which it claims wants to go with Maharashtra.

The Congress party’s plans wrest control of the civic body by roping in the MES and independent candidates failed, as it eventually accounted for just nine seats, with Independents also winning the same number of seats. The AIMIM sprang a surprise, winning one of the six seats it contested

This was the first time at the local level that Marathi speaking voters from Belgavi chose a national party, ignoring the MES, which enjoyed support of these voters for over three decades. Earlier, on most occasions, the MES supported by local groups controlled the civic body. However, this was for the first time major political parties fielded candidates in the elections to the corporation

Political observers feel after this election outcome, the politics over Kannada-Marathi language speaking population which hitherto had played out at a local level, may lose its sharpness.

Reacting to the BJP’s win and MES loss during the polls, Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, “The BJP ruled Karnataka government and took several steps to ensure defeat of MES, which is also a defeat of the Marathi population. The outcome is unfortunate for us.”

The 13 members who won from the BJP are Marathi speaking, said the party leaders.

The more than six-decade-old dispute being fought by Maharashtra and Karnataka with he former laying its claim on border areas, including Belgavi, Karwar and Nipani, reached the Supreme Court in 2004 and is stuck there.

The dispute between the two states goes back to 1954 when Belgaum and other border areas went to Karnataka during reorganisation of the states on a linguistic basis. Belgaum being the Marathi dominant area, later continued its struggle for its merger with Maharashtra.