Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said his party will not tolerate any attempt to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, and asked ally Congress to reprimand its Karnataka MLA for demanding to declare the country's financial capital a Union Territory.

Calling Mumbai his "motherland", Thackeray said "Marathi manoos" spilled his blood to get it.

He was apparently referring to Karnataka Congress MLA Laxman Savadi's reported statement that if leaders in Maharashtra are demanding to make Belgavi a Union Territory, then Mumbai should also be made a UT.

Maharashtra and its neighbouring state Karnataka have been locked a dispute for decades over the control of Belagavi, a border town in Karnataka formerly known as Belgaum. It has a significant Marathi-speaking population.

In a post of X, Thackeray, the MLA from Worli in Mumbai said, "The demand to make Mumbai a Union Territory is condemnable. Be it the Congress or the BJP, the Shiv Sena (UBT) will never tolerate any attempt to break Mumbai away from Maharashtra. Mumbai is our motherland. Marathi manoos achieved it by spilling his blood. Mumbai was not given to us by anyone." "The Congress leadership should reprimand its MLAs," he said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra, which also has the Congress and the NCP (SP) as its constituents. These three parties are part of the opposition INDIA bloc at the national level with several other parties.

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