Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday, said both Kannadigas and Marathi-speaking people were "living like brothers" in the state.
Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday, said both Kannadigas and Marathi-speaking people were "living like brothers" in the state, a day after Shiva Sena chief Bal Thackeray alleged that the former was "heaping atrocities" on the Marathi people.
"Kannadigas and Marathi-speaking people living in Karnataka are like brothers. In the interest of development both should work together," Yeddyurappa said here.
His comments came in the wake of the Sena chief attacking the BJP government in Karnataka over the boundary row.
"Chief minister Yeddyurappa was accorded a red carpet treatment when he visited Mumbai. The same chief minister is heaping grave atrocities on the Marathi people in Karnataka," Thackeray had charged in an editiorial comment in Sena's mouthpiece Saamna.
His comments came as a nine-day session of the Karnataka Legislature commenced in Belgaum on Friday amid protests from the Maharasthra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which is seeking merger of over 800 villages and towns of Karnataka with Maharashtra.
"I have respect and regard for Thackeray," Yeddyurappa said.
However, the Karnataka minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai described the Sena chief's comments as "baseless and politically motivated".
MES influence has come down in Belgaum, Bommai, also minister in-charge of the district, said.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Ramadas Kadam demanded the Centre declare 865 Marathi speaking villages of Karnataka-Maharastra border as union terrority pending Supreme Court verdict on a petition filed by Maharastra on boundary row.
He objected to Karnataka government denying permission to MES to hold a rally in Belgaum to protest the holding of the
legislature session in the city.
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