Opposition slams BJP on statehood issue

The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have termed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Raosaheb Danve’s comment supporting statehood for Vidarbha but not Marathwada ‘political opportunism’.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the BJP was known to have double standards throughout the party’s history. “This is nothing but political opportunism. They have no logic behind their big political decision and most of all these decisions are not for the common man of Maharashtra,” he said. Mr Sawant further said that on the one hand the BJP always maintained that development should start with small states while on the other they were not actually doing anything. “Lets just look at Vidarbha. All the parties in both Houses have agreed for it to be separated. Then what is stopping them from taking a decision until now ” he asked.

Mr Danve, the BJP’s state president, made the statement in the party’s executive meeting in Nashik on Saturday.

“The BJP, since Vajpayee was Prime Minister, has always been in favour of smaller states, which are better to develop than big ones. Hence our demand is an old one. However we aren’t in favour of a separate Marathwada state,” Mr Danve said.

Similarly, NCP’s spokesperson Nawab Malik said that RSS had made it known that it was in favour of Maharashtra being divided into four separate states, but the BJP’s statements were almost the opposite. “The RSS wants Maharashtra to be divided into four states. The BJP wants a separate Vidarbha state and now it is saying no to a separate Marathwada state. I think it rules the state and it is at the Centre, so it should bring a formal proposal on what exactly it wants to do,” said Mr Malik Shiv Sena spokesperson Arvind Bhosle said that his party leader Udhav Thackeray has already made the party’s point of view clear on the issue. The Sena has backed a united Maharashra and does not support division of the state.