Maharashtra state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis alleged that Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut was campaigning in Karnataka's Belagavi on the instructions of the Congress in a bid to cut the BJP's votes.
Fadnavis was speaking in Belagavi district, which has a significant population of Marathi-speaking people and has been a bone of contention between the two neighbouring states Maharashtra and Karnataka for decades.
The dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim on Belagavi, earlier known as Belgaum, which was part of the Bombay Presidency at the time of independence, on linguistic grounds.
If Raut stops functioning like a middleman of the Congress, then I will not come here. But he is here on the instructions of the Congress to cut BJP's votes, Fadnavis claimed.
Raut's party and Congress are political allies, so instead of telling us he should have asked Congress leaders not to field candidates here in Belagavi. But he will not tell that to Congress, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former chief minister added.
On several occasions in the past, Raut dared Fadnavis to support the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), a body fighting for the rights of the Marathi-speaking people in Belagavi-Karwar areas of the southern state, and accused the BJP of weakening the outfit.