Belgaum: The JD(S)-BJP coalition government's nomination of members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES), a party that is campaigning for the transfer of Belgaum and other parts of the State to Maharashtra, to bodies such as the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) and the Primary Land Development (PLD) Bank has come as a bolt from the blue to Kannada activists here.

Kannada activists said the Government had recently nominated Krishna Hundre to the Belgaum APMC, Nilima Pavase and Somnath Modgekar to the PLD Bank and Suresh Patil to the Belgaum Taluk Agricultural Marketing Society. All the four are active members of MES.

Their nominations are being attributed to the efforts of Manohar Kinekar, Uchagaon MLA, and Digamber Patil, Khanapur MLA.

Organisations protest

Various Kannada organisations, including Kannada Rakshana Vedike and District Kannada Organisations Action Committee, and Congress MLA Ramesh Kudachi are not only protesting against these nominations but also demanding withdrawal of these immediately.

Their argument is that nomination of MES members to these committees would be a setback to the growing Kannada movement in the border district of Belgaum.

Hitherto, the MES has been pursing an open battle against the State Government and participating in "direct elections" to the city corporation of Belgaum, Assembly and panchayat seats, mainly from Belgaum, Uchagaon and Khanapur with the objective of proving its political domination and majority.

Linguistic harmony

The nomination of MES members is seen as Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's initiative for building linguistic harmony between Kannada and Marathi-speaking communities in border areas in general and Belgaum in particular.

Sources said the Dharam Singh led Congress-JD(S) Government had nominated a Marathi-speaking politician to the Belgaum APMC under pressure from a Congress leader.

But, the present Government has made en bloc nominations of MES activists, Kannada activists said.

This was not expected of the Government, which was proclaiming to protect the interests of Kannadigas in border areas, they added. If the Government did not withdraw the nominations immediately, the controversy could snowball into a major agitation, sources said.

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