E-Paper
Karnataka election: Despite united front, Marathi speakers’ forum suffers defeat
The poor performance of MES in north Karnataka has put up a question mark if the cause they are fighting for more than 50 years in favour of the merger of border areas of Karnataka into Maharashtra, requires a fresh rethinking and a strategy
If the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered drubbing in Karnataka assembly elections, the regional outfit Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), an outfit of Marathi-speaking people, also faced defeat with all its candidates’ losing seats.
The poor performance of MES in north Karnataka has put up a question mark if the cause they are fighting for more than 50 years in favour of the merger of border areas of Karnataka into Maharashtra, requires a fresh rethinking and a strategy.
The MES candidates, mainly involved in a triangular contest, were fighting on six seats in Belgaum district including Belgaum South, Belgaum North, Belgaum rural, Khanapur, Nipani, and Yamkanmardi assembly constituencies.
The election result showed that despite having sizeable votes of Marathi speaking population in border areas of Maharashtra-Karnataka, voters preferred national Parties such as BJP and Congress in the Karnataka assembly election, the result of which was declared on Saturday.
The Belgaum district with 18 assembly seats has the second largest number of assembly constituencies after Bangaluru urban. Of these 18 seats, 11 were won by the Congress party while the BJP managed to bag seven.
The MES candidate Ramakant Konduskar on his part gave a tough fight at Belgaum south assembly constituency where BJP candidate Abhay Patil registered a victory.
Konduskar garnered 64,487 votes while the BJP candidate received 77,094 votes. Rest all the five seats where MES contested the election have got fewer votes.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) blamed BJP for the division of votes for candidates backed by MES. Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “It’s the first time in the history that BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde camp) poured money in the election for the defeat of Marathi-speaking candidates.”
From Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis campaigned for BJP candidates. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), however, campaigned for the MES candidates during the elections.
Besides Belgaum South, the MES candidate from Belgaum rural assembly constituency RM Chougule received sizeable 41,247 votes.
It is not the first time MES has not been able to register any victory in the assembly polls. In the 2018 state assembly elections too, none of the candidates backed by MES had won the polls. Earlier, between 2007 and 2017, MES lost its strength due to internal disputes. However, this time, it had managed to put up a united front.
MES has been functional in Karnataka since 1957 with the 1970s and 1980s, the outfit registered impressive victories in polls, and the organisation fought on the plank of the merger of border areas in Maharashtra. While the MES is not a registered political party it has in the past two decades had representation in Belgaum Municipal Corporation.
Maloji Ashtekar, a member of MES, said, “Our aim by contesting polls is to make sure our voice is heard. the results of an election is not important.”
The border row that dates back to 1957 after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines involves Belgaum and 800 adjoining villages, is currently being heard in Supreme Court with Maharashtra laying its claim over these areas.
