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Patil sticks to his guns

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil stuck to his guns on Tuesday in the face of a demand for his arrest made in the Karnataka Legislative Council.

He told reporters here that he had only exercised his constitutional right of freedom of expression, and reiterated that Maharashtra would continue its fight for merging the Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka with itself.

At a convention of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belgaum on Monday, Mr. Patil said he was attending it as a representative of Maharashtra.

Asked to comment on Mr. Patil's speech, Maharashtra BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said he had "oversimplified" the matter. "Not all villages are totally Marathi-speaking.

And what about the bilingual villages?" The BJP wanted the State Reconstitution Commission revived to look into the problem.

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