After Telangana, now separate statehood is voiced for Vidarbha.
The call for carving out separate state does not ends with granting Telangana statehood for the Congress-led UPA government in India. Heat is gaining for the demand of separate Vidarbha state out of Indian state of Maharashtra.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and member of Parliament Banwarilal Purohit told to the Indian media today his party had passed a resolution for the support of separate Vidarbha in 1992′s Bhubaneshwar executive committee meet. He added the BJP should now convince alliance partner Shiv Sena to support the demand for a separate statehood for the people of Vidarbha.
Vilas Muttemwar, Congress MP from Nagpur, said the issue of carving out Vidarbha from Maharashtra has been raised several times in the past.
The leaders in support of Vidarbha creation includes former MLA Wamanrao Chatap, Ahmed Kadar, Deepak Nilawar, Ram Newle from Shetkari Sanghatana as well as former director general of police Prabir Chakraborty.
On August 5 the pro-Vidarbha leaders has announced of launching an agitation at Jantar Mantar in the capital New Delhi.
The demand for giving statehood to Vidarbha has also been voiced from Vidarbha Economic development Council (VED) NGO. Its chairman Devendra Parekh said the constitutional remedy of the country has failed in bringing economic development to the region so a creation of separate state is the only solution.
Situated in central India and lying on the eastern part of Maharashtra, Vidarbha produces 4500 MW power and consumes only 2000 MW of it. Also, another 10,000 MW capacity power plant is in the pipeline there. Hence, the surplus of power can be a great advantage for Vidarbha state.