BELAGAVI: Time and again, political leaders from Maharashtra rake up language and border issues during elections to woo Marathi speakers along the Karnataka-Maharashtra border villages in Belagavi. But the truth is there are lakhs of Kannada speakers in Maharashtra border villages as well, whose voice was suppressed for decades.
Now for the first time, the Election Commission in Maharashtra has included the names of candidates in Kannada as well as Marathi in EVM machines in 15 Assembly constituencies for the polls in the neighbouring state.
In these 15 Assembly constituencies, including Latur, Mangalwed, Akkalkot, Jatt and south Solapur, Kannada speakers are in the majority. There are at least 50 to 60 lakh Kannada speakers in these constituencies of Maharashtra, most belonging to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.
Realising the importance of this block, candidates of various parties had invited prominent Kannadiga leaders from Karnataka as star campaigners in this election.
The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), recently met with political parties in Maharashtra and asked them to include the issue of resolving the Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary row in their manifesto. Interestingly, in what can be seen as a snub to the MES, no party or candidate raised the border issue in their election speeches. Instead, they printed posters and handbills in Kannada to reach out to Kannada voters.
In many Maharashtra border villages, Kannada speakers had launched a movement to condemn the apathy of the government towards them and even passed resolutions in panchayats expressing their desire to merge their villages with Karnataka.
In the Maharashtra polls, party candidates wooed Kannada speakers, promising to carry out development works on a priority basis in villages with Kannada speakers.
The Jatt constituency MLA, Vikramsingh Sawant, went a step further by participating in a border festival organised by the Karnataka government in neighbouring Guddapur village.
Malleshappa Teli, a resident of Umadi village of Jatt taluk, said, “All candidates have promised to develop the villages where Kannada speakers live.”