In accordance with the established policy of bifurcation on a linguistic majority basis, in 1956, the Belgaum district was incorporated into the newly formed Mysore state (now Karnataka) with the passage of the States Reorganization Act, adjoining areas that had a majority of Marathi speaking citizens were included in the newly formed Maharashtra state. The Act, which reorganised India's states along linguistic and administrative lines, included Belgav in the Kannada-majority Karnataka, the district had most of the Marathi-speaking population hence the 'dispute';