Maharashtra, Karnataka Assembly sessions begin on stormy notes

The Winter Session of the Karnataka Assembly began on Monday at the Suvarna Vidhana Souda in Belagavi, which is at the centre of controversy due to the recent border row between the southern state and neighbouring Maharashtra. (PTI)

Karnataka Congress leaders, led by Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and state unit chief D K Shivakumar, Monday staged a protest outside the Assembly after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled a portrait of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar inside the Karnataka Assembly Hall. (PTI)

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled a portrait of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar inside the Karnataka Assembly Hall. He also unveiled the portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Dr B R Ambedkar, social reformer Basavanna, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the first day of the session. (PTI)

The Karnataka Police stopped more than 300 pro-Maharashtra activists from entering Belagavi district Monday. The Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MMES), a pro-Maharashtra organisation that has been seeking the merger of Belagavi district into Maharashtra, had planned to stage an agitation in Belagavi as part of its annual Maha Melava protest, but the district administration denied permission citing the law-and-order issue. (PTI)

In Maharashtra's Nagpur, meanwhile, the state Assembly Winter Session began on Monday. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis arrived at the second capital of the state. This was the first legislative session attended by both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde after their bitter break-up. (PTI)

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the state would not bow down in front of naxal threats and the process of industrialisation in naxal-dominated areas like Gadchiroli would continue irrespective of such threats. He was replying to the issue of threats given by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Dharmarao Baba Atram. (PTI)

Opposition MLAs held protests against the ruling MLAs of the Maharashtra legislative Assembly just before the session began in Nagpur. (PTI)

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Saroj Ahire with her new born infant meets with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at Vidhan Bhavan during the Winter Session of the State Assembly, in Nagpur. (PTI)