After recent comments from Laxman Savadi, another Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol on Sunday claimed that the Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was a 'Kannadiga'.

At a book launch on the border dispute between the two states in Mumbai on January 27, Uddhav Thackeray said areas dominated by Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka like Belagavi, Karwar and Nippani should be declared as the 'Union Territory' till the Supreme Court gave its final verdict in the decades old case.

Now lashing back on Uddhav Thackeray, Karjol while talking to media persons on Sunday said, “Thackeray does not know history. Shivaji's forefather Belliyappa was a Kannadiga from Soratur in Karnataka's Gadag district. When drought struck Gadag, he (Belliyappa) migrated to Maharashtra, and Shivaji was the fourth generation of his family.”

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Asserting that the Mahajan Commission's report in 1968 upheld Karnataka's claim on Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani and 800 villages in the border areas," Karjol said that Thackeray had been raising the issue to divert attention from the 'infighting' in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government, which was formed by Shiva Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on November 28, 2019 in Maharashtra.

"Thackrey should at least know now that Shivaji, who is Shiv Sena's icon and named the party after the Maratha king was a Kannadiga by origin," reiterated Karjol, who hails from Bijapur (Vijayapura) in the state's north west region.

Echoing Karjol, the state's another Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi said as Belagavi was part of then Bombay province or presidency during the British rule, Mumbai should be part of Karnataka and should be declared as Union Territory till the apex court gave its verdict.

Savadi, who hails from Athani in Belagavi district, also said the MVA coalition government had failed on various counts in Maharashtra.

(With inputs from IANS)