Ajit Pawar: Field Harish Salve to fight Maha-K'taka border case in SC

Mumbai, Dec 15 Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar on Thursday urged the state government to appoint legal luminary Harish Salve to represent its stand in the Supreme Court on the simmering Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute case.

Pawar, who is a senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, also accused Karnataka Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai of being responsible for creating the current crisis because of his indiscriminate statements which have created a political furore since the past few weeks.

"The matter is already before the apex court... The judiciary will decide the outcome of the case. But Bommai unnecessarily raked up the latest controversies. If he had not uttered those statements, the atmosphere on both sides would not have deteriorated," Pawar said.

In order to put forth Maharashtra's viewpoint on the border issue forcefully, he suggested the state government to name Salve to direct the legal battle in the apex court.

Pawar's statement came a day after the Chief Ministers and home ministers of the two squabbling states met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi late on Wednesday night to hammer out a solution to the border crisis.

Adopting a path of reconciliation, Shah has advised them to set up a panel of three ministers from both states to study and resolve the issues affecting the local populace, maintain a status quo and refrain from making statements/claims till the Supreme Court delivers verdict.

At the much-anticipated meeting were Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minsiter Devendra Fadnavis, and from Karnataka Chief Minister Bommai and Home Minister Araga Gyanendra.

Referring to Shah's issue of 'fake Twitter' accounts that are spreading misinformation on the states' border, Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut have also expressed concern.

"It took a week to realise that those tweets are fake..! We have a claim over Belagavi (Belgaum), then how did you (Karnataka) make it the state's second capital and conduct the legislature session there when the matter is subjudice," demanded Raut.

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