As reported in pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=VOTE_2004&file_name=vote364.txt&counter_img=364
The MES party is demanding belgaum to join into maharastra. they argue that they want to return to roots. If we study history properly belgaum and many other parts of maharshtra belong to karnataka.
The name of the village "yallur" is pure kannada name. population of marathi speakers as par the report given by dailypioneer in the above link, is 95%. this happened because of the unfair force to speak only in marathi. The people there have forgot thier roots and they are talking of returning to roots, so funny.
name "BeLgaum" also came from kannada name "BeLagaavi". "BeLa" means white in kannada. there many other kannada towns having "BeLa" in their names. for example "BeLagoLa" which has statue of baahubali and "BeLavaaDi", "beLalagi","beLandooru" etc.
there are place names second half of "BeLagaavi", that is 'gaavi.
"soragaavi", "siggaavi" etc "gaavi" means village in kannada. there is a word in kannada "gaavila" which means 'village guy'.
check this link, there is a discussion.
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9805&L=indology&D=0&P=7931&F=P
considering the history BeLagaavi is a pure kannada town and belongs to karnataka.
