Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has come out openly for “united Maharashtra” at a time when his own Congress, the BJP and the NCP are failing to take a convincing stand on this issue. But the Shiv Sena will remain firm behind Mr Chavan on it.
On the other hand, the AICC is find it difficult to oppose separate Vidarbha state demand after asking the Centre to go ahead with a plan to split the nearing Andhra Pradesh “in order to fulfil social, economic, political and others aspirations” of the people of Telangana.
The other day, Mr Chavan made his stand clear on separate Vidarbha in Vidarbha itself.
According to the reports coming from Nagpur, Mr Chavan said Vidarbha would not be a “viable” state and would face Naxal problems like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states have been facing.
He also said common man should be the centre point of development and not any region.
According to the sources, the Vidarbha issue could split the alliance between the Shiv Sena and the BJP if the latter joins the agitation on division of Maharashtra.
The Sangh Parivar has been in favour of Vidarbha state and that was perhaps why the RSS and the Jana Sangha had stayed away from the all party agitation on Samyukta Maharashtra led by the veterans like S.M. Joshi, Acharya Atre, S.A. Dange and Probodhankar Thackeray, the father of the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
If the Sharad Pawar led NCP will go with the “sentiments of the people of Vidarbha” on this issue, the BJP cannot back the united Maharashtra after bifurcating Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh during the NDA regime.
The PCC chief Manikrao Thakre is yet to make his stand clear on it at a time when the AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, CWC member Vilas Muttemwar, NCP leader and Union minister Praful Patel have reiterated their support for the separate Vidarbha state.
The CWC resolution on a Telangana state passed at its special meeting here on July 30, explained that it backed the demand on the basis of views expressed by “political parties, political leaders , elected representatives and citizens’s groups at a large number of meetings convened by the AICC general secretaries on different dates and in different parts of Andhra Pradesh.