The Sharad Pawar-led NCP will remain with the people on the issue of a separate Vidarbha state, while the Congress does not want the high command to delay a decision on it after splitting the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Union minister and NCP vice-president Praful Patel and Congress MP and the chairman of the Lokmat Media Vijay Darda on Wednesday came out in support of the demand at a time when the BJP is not lagging behind in pressing for bifurcation of Maharashtra.
Significantly, barring the Shiv Sena and a few smaller parties, no major party in the state is against a Vidarbha state.
The demand will gain momentum further once the process of formation of Telangana state is completed in few months. This is because it will be an issue in the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly polls in 2014.
The infrastructure required for a new state has already been existing in Vidarbha. It has the high court (Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court), legislature building in the capital, Nagpur.
“NCP fully supports Vidarbha if people are keen to have it... If people want, we will support it,” NCP vice-president and Union minister Praful Patel told reporters. The NCP is a partner in the Congress-led coalition in Maharashtra as also at the Centre.
Replying to questions, he said having a second state reorganisation commission was “not a bad idea” as it would look into various demands for formation of smaller states.
At the same time, Mr Patel, who represents Bhandara-Gondiya constituency of Vidarbha in Lok Sabha, dismissed suggestions that the region has not developed.
Mr Vijay Darda,the sitting Rajya Sabha member of the Congress, has also demanded a separate Vidarbha, saying the region would not be “liberated from the debilitating grip of backwardness” if it doesn’t get freedom.
In a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Mr Darda said “the complete inability of the state government to end the series of farmers’ suicides in the wake of agrarian crisis could be said to be the final nail in the coffin.”
He further said the Vidarbha region has been the bastion of the Congress and the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had indeed expressed his favourable commitment for separate statehood but the process could not be taken to the logical conclusion for a host of reasons. Senior ministers involved in these discussions have also regretted that they did not push the matter hard enough.