Bus services between Karnataka and Maharashtra have stopped after recent tensions. Reports stated that a bus conductor was beaten up in Belagavi (formerly Belgaum) for allegedly not responding in Marathi. Then, some unidentified individuals attacked an MSRTC bus driver in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka, in retaliation.

Apparently things spiralled after an altercation in Marihal, when the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus conductor was reportedly attacked by a group of men for not responding to a passenger who asked for a ticket in Marathi. When he told her he did not speak Marathi and to speak in Kannada, he was allegedly attacked by the woman and her male companion.