Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (Marathi: महाराष्ट्र एकीकरण समिती, MES) is a regional party based in Belagavi (Belgaum) city of India's Karnataka state. It has campaigned for the merger of Belgaum to the neighbouring Maharashtra state. It claims to represent the Marathi-speaking people in the region.
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History
Maharashtra has a long-standing dispute with Karnataka on the status of Belagavi district in north-west Karnataka. Belagavi was formerly part of Maharashtra's predecessor Bombay State. It was merged into Karnataka's predecessor state Mysore during the 1956 states reorganisation. The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) had come into being in 1948, aimed at opposing the proposed merger (which finally happened in 1956).
Politics
In 2013 Municipal Corporation election in Belagavi, party won 33 seats out of the 58 Wards. In the 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections, the party won 2 seats.