Bengaluru, Mar 13 (IANS): Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basvaraj Horatti on Saturday said that he would soon hold a meeting with his counterpart, Karnataka Legislative Assembly speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, to chalk out a plan to convene a legislature session in Belagavi.

Horatti's statement assumes significance in the backdrop of Maharashtra Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut alleging that Marathi people residing in Karnataka's Belagavi district were being victimised. He said an all-party delegation from Maharashtra should visit the city in the neighbouring state to resolve the stand-off.

Horatti told reporters that he would soon be visiting Belagavi along with his counterpart Kageri to inspect and work out modalities to organise the session there.

"We have not held a legislative session in Belagavi since 2018 onwards due to various reasons. We need to rethink about organising it there. Nothing is finalised yet, but we need to organise it there too," he said.

He added that both Houses must function systematically 60 days in a year and this year we wish to accomplish it. "We have been talking about holding 60 days session per annum but this has not come into practice for many reasons. We need more fruitful debates and discussions to take place," he said.

The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha was constructed as a part of Karnataka's reiteration of its control over Belagavi in its inter state rivalry with Maharashtra for control of the district.

While the proposal to build a legislature building in Belagavi to counter Maharashtra's claim to the area had been mooted several years ago, it was after H. D. Kumaraswamy became Chief Minister in 2006 that the project gained momentum.

While it was originally to have come up at Tilakwadi, it was subsequently relocated to its present location in the Halga-Bastwad area of Belagavi, just off the Bengaluru-Mumbai highway, which is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.