May 03, 2024 08:39 AM IST
The MES were protesting against his support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate instead of the MES candidate, in Khanapur town in Belagavi district.
The police have detained the workers of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), a regional outfit at the forefront of the agitation of Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka, for showing black flags to Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde in Belagavi district. They were protesting against his support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate instead of the MES candidate, in Khanapur town in Belagavi district on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
The incident took place near Jamboti village, about a kilometer from Sri Malaprabha stadium, where Shinde was addressing a gathering.
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Khanapur police inspector Ramchandra Naik said: “About 50 workers with black flags were taken into custody, camped in the Khanapur police station campus. They were released after the CM passed through the taluk.”
Khanapur taluk MES spokesman Abasaheb Dalavi said the organisation scheduled to show him the black flags to express displeasure over his changed decision of backing his coalition party instead of MES in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Police stopped us by preventing our activists from even reaching the road where the chief minister passed throught,” he said, adding that they just wanted to show the flags by standing on the road and not in the public meeting.
Shinde, in his address, stressed the importance of voting for the BJP to protect the nation. Khanapur and Kittur taluks of Belagavi district comes under Uttara Kannada constituency, where six-time BJP MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri is contesting.
Shinde was invited to address the gathering as Khanapur has more Marathi voters. Anjali Nimalkar, who represented Khanapur assembly constituency in the last term, is the Congress candidate from the constituency.
The MES supported former legislator Manohar Kinekar, who represented Belagavi Rural constituency, and had appealed to Shinde to drop his campaign schedule, stating that the welfare of lakhs of Marathis residing on the border of Karnataka was more important than winning a Lok Sabha seat for his party.
“We are very grateful to the Maharashtra government, mainly CM Shinde, who implemented a free insurance scheme of up to ₹5 lakh for Marathis residing on the border of Karnataka,” Kinekar said, adding that it was unfortunate that the same person standing against them was “contesting to maintain his political status”.
Shinde had assured MES delegates in Mumbai that his party would send a few ministers and prominent leaders to campaign and address the organisation during the election, he said adding that the chief minister did not keep his promise.
