Sanjay Raut calls Chandrakant Patil and Shamburaj Desai cowards for not visiting Belagavi over border row

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut dubbed Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai cowards for not visiting Belagavi amid the ragging border row with Karnataka and also targeted Eknath Shinde-BJP government terming it as weak and helpless.

Where is the chief minister who says he also faced lathis in Belgaum (Belagavi)? If you have faced lathis, you would not have watched the insult meted out to Maharashtra by Karnataka from the chair you are now occupying,” Raut said.

According to a report of PTI, Raut, a key leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, said Shiv Sena has been giving a befitting reply since the border dispute with Karnataka erupted decades ago.

Where is the chief minister who says he also faced lathis in Belgaum (Belagavi)? If you have faced lathis, you would not have watched the insult meted out to Maharashtra by Karnataka from the chair you are now occupying, Raut said.

Patil and Desai, appointed for coordinating the state’s border dispute with Karnataka, were scheduled to visit Belagavi on Tuesday and hold talks with activists of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) on the dispute.

They are cowards. They got a letter not to come (to Belagavi) and they got scared, he said referring to Patil and Desai. They (the two ministers) should have shown some guts and gone (to Belagavi). Who would have stopped you? You have police protection. No stone would have been pelted at you because you would have gone there after doing the ‘setting’ (arrangement), Raut said.