Amid simmering tension at the Karnataka-Maharashtra border, Police on Monday foiled the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti’s (MMES) mega protest in Belagavi and detained its leaders even as several members from opposition parties from Maharashtra were stopped from crossing the border.

As the 10-day session of the Karnataka Legislature commenced in Belagavi amid tight security, MMES activist Suraj Kanbarkar said some members from opposition parties in Maharashtra proceeding towards Belagavi district were detained by the Maharashtra police. The session will be the last one of the current Assembly as elections in the southern state are due early next year.

There were also reports that about 300 members from the opposition parties in Maharashtra belonging to the Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP were stopped at the border and detained or sent back by the Karnataka police.

The MMES had planned to stage a massive demonstration to press for the merger of the entire Belagavi district with Maharashtra.

The MMES and some political outfits in Maharashtra have been pressing for this demand on the ground that Belagavi district and a few other neighbouring areas of Karnataka have a substantial Marathi-speaking population. But, Karnataka has been rejecting the demand.

Kanbarkar said the police detained MMES youth wing president Shubham Shelke, former MLA Manohar Kinekar, treasurer Prakash Marghale and MMES councillor Shivaji Mandolkar.

As the decades-old border dispute between Karnataka and Belagavi flared up yet again, a security blanket has been thrown across the Belagavi city which has been turned into a fortress.

According to police sources, nearly 5,000 policemen were deployed for maintaining law and order in the city during the winter session of the state Legislature.

Kanbarkar alleged that the police removed the pandal, chairs and tables from the planned protest site at Vaccine Depot Ground in Tilakwadi in Belagavi after giving permission.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in the state Assembly that the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government was making efforts for the release of the people and leaders detained in Karnataka.

Raising the issue in the Assembly on the first day of the state legislature’s winter session in Nagpur, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar said Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane (of the Shinde faction) was stopped from entering Belagavi, despite the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the boundary dispute.

Read more: Security stepped up across Belagavi as 10-day K’taka Legislature session begins

Mane was recently appointed as the chief of an expert committee formed by the Maharashtra government regarding a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the border dispute with Karnataka.

He had requested the Belagavi administration to make arrangements for his visit to the city. However, the district authorities banned his entry, saying a “possible inflammatory speech” by him might create law and order problems.

“For the first time, the Union home minister intervened in the matter and mediated. He called a meeting and this has happened for the first time. He has taken the matter seriously,” Shinde said.

“We should stand by the people residing in border areas, back their struggle and act in a way that doesn’t hurt them.”

Shinde said the state government urged the Centre that this issue is related to the self-respect of Maharashtra and that it should take a firm stand in the favour of Maharashtra and people residing in the border areas.

“We said vehicles from Maharashtra are vandalised and attacked. This is not in sync with law and order and democracy. Such things should not happen because there could be a reaction to an action,” the CM said.

In the state Legislative Council, Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve also raised the border row issue and condemned the ban imposed on Mane.

“Are we living on the India-Pakistan border that such things are happening?” Danve asked.

Talking to reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan complex, Fadnavis said, “It was decided before the Union home minister that people from both the states will not be stopped from crossing the border and visiting the neighbouring areas.”

“However, the Karnataka government did not allow people from Maharashtra to participate in a local morcha organised democratically. We will also discuss the issue with Karnataka chief minister,” he added.