NEW DELHI: The border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka border led to a war of words between the NCP and Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena on one side and the BJP on the other in Parliament on Wedneday.
NCP leader Supriya Sule demanded that Union home minister Amit Shah intervene in the matter. The sharp exchanges between the two sides took place during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, when Sule said the attack on Maharashtra and Maharashtrians was unacceptable and that the Centre needed to intervene especially because both states governed by BJP.
A day after her father and NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar issued a “final warning” to Karnataka and called the BJP government “weak”, Sule said it was unacceptable that the people of Maharashtra are getting “beaten up” despite BJP ruling both states. “In the last 10 days, a conspiracy is being hatched to break Maharashtra. Amit Shah should intervene,” she said.
BJP MPs from Karnataka, however, objected to Sule’s remarks, and parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said the matter is subjudice. With Sule finding support from Shiv Sena MPs Arvind Sawant and Vinayak Raut, NCP and Sena MPs raised slogans for “Samyukt Maharashtra” and against Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai.
With neither side backing down, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla intervened and said the matter pertained to a “sensitive topic involving two states,” and added that the Centre had no role to play in the matter. After some minutes of sloganeering, NCP and Shiv Sena staged a walk out.
