Indecision stems from hidden agenda

Aug 13, 2013 |

mumbai

Hidden interest of political parties of Maharashtra has led to the indecision on the demand for a separate statehood for Vidarbha. It seems to be the only reason as even after two major political parties like BJP and NCP supporting the demand, the issue remains unsolved in all these decades. However, the Congress and Shiv Sena are openly opposing the demand for their own benefit.
According to sources, the Congress does not want it to be resolved, as on the basis of maximum number of seats from Vidarbha region, it becomes the number one party of the state and also made its claim for the post of chief minister since years.
A look at the statistics shows that out of the 288 seats of the state Assembly, 62 are from Vidarbha region alone where Congress won 22 seats. While in the remaining five regions, the party got only 60 seats, which are not enough to stake claim to the post of chief minister.
“The NCP is supporting the demand for a similar reason. If Vidarbha is bifurcated from Maharashtra, Congress will not be able to claim the chief ministership,” pointed out a political observer. He further added that NCP had a very strong base in western Maharashtra and no party could challenge it in future, too, hence chances for Congress to improve its position is very limited if not for Vidarbha.
Sources said that the state BJP is supporting the demand for a separate statehood to preserve its dominance in Vidarbha. The party has 26 MLAs alone from the region out of its total tally of 46 seats in Maharashtra. “It would be a “shoot itself in the foot” situation if the BJP opposes the demand. It is the same party which came to power in 2002 and denied to approve the same demand by saying that it would be considered only if the Maharashtra state Assembly passed a resolution for the separation of Vidarbha,” recalled a senior journalist.
The Shiv Sena remained firm on its stand, as the party does not want any divisions in the state. “The strategy of the party was to always pretend that they are fighting for the ‘sons of the soil’ and supporting such division would harm the party position in other parts of the state,”
said another political observer.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/249903" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-6c7ce4c536e0a5342e11c91820f8e7a6" value="form-6c7ce4c536e0a5342e11c91820f8e7a6" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="87940340" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>