Cong yet to decide on separate Vidarbha state

NAGPUR: The Congress high command is not yet ready to give a green signal to the Congress Legislature Party in Maharashtra to move a resolution in the state legislature for creating a separate state for Vidarbha, it is learnt.
Chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with Congress legislators from the Vidarbha region.Senior ministers from the region, Satish Chaturvedi, Manikrao Thakre, Vasudha Deshmukh and others, attended the meeting.
The Vidarbha MLAs put pressure on Mr Shinde to move the resolution in the assembly during the current winter session. They pointed out that the ongoing session in Nagpur is the last one of the state legislative assembly that was elected in 1999, because the state will go to the polls in September 2004.
The Vidarbha Congress members further pointed out that, in view of popular sentiment, the party would stand to gain in the next assembly elections if it could claim it created the new state of Vidarbha. They wanted the party to immediately move the resolution.
Mr Shinde reportedly informed the Vidarbha Congress MLAs that he held detailed discussions with senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on December 8 and gave his candid assessment of the situation.
Mr Shinde said he would not oppose the move to create a separate Vidarbha state if the Congress high command directed him to move a resolution in the current session of the state legislature.
Mr Shinde made it clear that he had not discussed the issue with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “I called on Ms Gandhi for just one-and-a-half minute to wish her on her birthday in advance, since I was busy in the legislature on Tuesday,’’ he said. The CM added that Ms Gandhi has neither ruled out moving the resolution nor accepting the proposal.
The proposal is being considered by committee set up by the AICC under Mr Mukherjee. The Congress high command is aware that the Vidarbha issue is linked to a similar demand for a separate Telangana in Andhra Pradesh.
“We will have to think twice before taking any decision on Vidarbha, as it will affect the party’s prospects in Andhra Pradesh, which is going to face assembly polls,’’ a senior Congress minister said. Mr Shinde is also worried that the Shiv Sena’s opposition to the move may lead to a law-and-order problem the state.
He pointed out that the smaller states of Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand were created with unanimity among all political parties. Nationalist Congress Party state president R.R. Patil told TNN that the Congress party should handle the issue, since it is the party leading the Democratic Front (DF) government.
“We will support the resolution for a separate Vidarbha state if the Congress party decides to move a resolution in the house,’’ he added.
State Bharatiya Janata Party president Gopinath Munde is supporting the move, but wants the ruling coalition to take the initiative before the BJP supports it and follows up with the BJP-led Union government.
The Congress-led DF government is under pressure to take an immediate decision on the issue as senior Congress leaders Vasant Sathe and N.K.P. Salve have threatened to go on hunger strike over it.
Mr Sathe was scheduled to go on a hunger strike from Monday. However, Mr Shinde and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh persuaded him defer the fast.Mr Sathe now plans to fast from 12 December if the DF government fails table the resolution in the assembly by then, sources said.