Posters on NWKRTC bus calls for inclusion of Belagavi, Karwar in Maharashtra

Belagavi: The boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra seems to have escalated after Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray demanded that the disputed areas be carved out into a union territory till differences are resolved.

Even as leaders of both the states have been hitting out at each other, a poster in Marathi, found pasted on a North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation bus travelling from Davanagere to Belagavi via Pune has added fuel to the fire.

The poster, under the banner of Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Pune unit activists mentions calls for the inclusion of Belagavi, Karwar and Nipani with Maharashtra.

Earlier Thackeray said his government is committed to incorporating into the state the areas of Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority. The remarks were made in the presence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and his deputy Ajit Pawar, who has earlier stoked the issue by saying that Belagavi, Karwar and Nipani needed to be included in Maharashtra as it was a “dream of Balasaheb Thackeray”.

Reacting to Thackeray’s remarks Karnataka’s deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi on Thursday said Mumbai should be made part of his state, and urged the Centre to at least declare it a Union Territory.