In what is seen as an effort to buy peace after his remarks sparked off a revival of the demand for a separate statehood for north Karnataka, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has said he is in favour of making Belagavi the second State capital after Bengaluru.
Kumaraswamy reacting to protests against lack of budgetary allocations for North Karnataka, is learnt to have said at a meeting that the people of that region voted based on caste and money and now want him to work for their welfare. “While voting, they (voters) remembered their caste and money. Now, they want me to work.”
At another meeting, he is reported to have said that he should be allowed to work for those who elected him. Most of the seats won by his party, the JD (S) are in south Karnataka.
These remarks seem to have angered the political leaders of north Karnataka who immediately put forth their claim for a separate statehood for that region.
According to political analyst, Mahadev Prakash, Lingayat leaders as well as political leaders from south Karnataka were always opposed to the unification of the State.
Even after the unification was carried out in 1956, it was only in 1973, the Mysore state was renamed as Karnataka when D Devraj Urs was the chief minister who too had earlier opposed unification and renaming of the State. Even the Vokkaligas to which Kumaraswamy belongs to, had at one time opposed to the unification, according to various reports.
North Karnataka is considered a backward region in the State with hardly any major development taking place there since it became part of Karnataka.
According to the DM Najundappa report, there are 60 taluks in the State, which are considered backward out of 175 and all these are in north Karnataka. In all the major parameters including education, irrigation, infrastructure and health, it lags the rest of the State. However, the Alamatti Dam in north Karnataka has a far higher gross storage capacity of 125 TMC compared with all the dams in south Karnataka, including the K R Sagar Dam which is around 102 TMC.
In another development, leaders from north Karnataka have threatened to unfurl a separate flag atop the assembly building in Belgavi. The flag features the colours of saffron, yellow and green compared with the yellow, white and red colours of the state flag.
Kumaraswamy in his defence has accused the BJP of fanning the demand for a separate statehood for north Karnataka claiming that they are trying to make political capital out of it.