Karnataka - Belgaum   

Shiv Sena to contest 45 Assembly, three Lok Sabha seats in State

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, MARCH 2. The Shiv Sena has decided to contest the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State, according to Vishwanath Nerurkar, its senior leader and in-charge of the border districts in Karnataka.

He said it would contest the elections on two main issues, Hindutva and development.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the Shiv Sena would field at least 45 candidates for the Assembly elections in the border districts of Karwar, Bidar, Belgaum, Bijapur and Gulbarga.

In addition, it would contest in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Belgaum, Chikkodi and Bijapur.

The Shiv Sena's Belgaum city unit President, Sachin Bichchu, and other party leaders were present. "There will be not any change in the decision and we will contest 45 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats,'' Mr. Nerurkar said.

He said the list of the candidates to be fielded would be finalised and declared within the next 10 days.

Denying that the Shiv Sena would volunteer an alliance with the BJP in the State, he, however, said the doors of Shiv Sena were open. But talks would be held with only those who went to it through the front doors.

Yet the Shiv Sena had decided to contest the Belgaum Lok Sabha and Assembly seats "with or without an alliance''. If it resulted in division of Marathi votes, then it was for others to think about it.

When pointed out that the Shiv Sena was raking up the "border" issue and exploiting the Marathi-speaking population in the border districts of the State with any eye on their votes, he said it was only the Shiv Sena which had made a sacrifice losing 80 of its activists in a struggle for wresting the Marathi-speaking areas and therefore, only the Shiv Sena had the right to speak about the "border" issue and no one else, including the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi, could take it up.

He criticised the S.M. Krishna Government for failing to improve civic conditions in Belgaum city. Mr. Krishna had promised Rs. 127 crores for drinking water supply works in the city but nothing had come of it.

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