Assuring his party’s support if a motion for separate Vidarbha state were tabled in the Parliament, Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari has appealed to all political parties to lend support to the demand. Senior state ministers — Nitin Raut of the Congress and Anil Deshmukh of NCP — also supported Mr Gadkari’s views on the issue. “If all parties come together, no one can stop Vidarbha from becoming a separate state,” Mr Gadkari said, while speaking at an all-party meeting organised by the Vidarbha Economic Development (VED) Council on Friday night. The BJP would support the motion for Vidarbha statehood, if it were tabled in Parliament, he added. President of the Maharashtra BJP unit Devendra Fadnavis said that he would even resign from his post as an MLA, for supporting the cause of Vidarbha’s separate statehood. “But, the right time for resignation is yet to come,” he said. Mr Fadnavis further said that instead of waiting for the backlog to be removed, a separate state of Vidarbha would boost development of the region. Mr Raut said that all political leaders of Vidarbha should create a pressure group for demanding statehood for the region. Maharashtra food and civil supplies minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh alleged that some leaders took up the issue of a separate Vidarbha, only when they lost ministerial posts. He appealed to all leaders and elected representatives from the region to come together for the cause. Leaders of various parties, including BJP, Congress and others, were present during the programme. So far, the BJP is the only main political party in the state that has officially supported a separate Vidarbha statehood. The region is of particular importance for the BJP as 26 of its 46 MLAs in Maharashtra have been elected from Vidarbha. However, when the party was in power in the Centre, it did nothing for a separate state of Vidarbha, mainly because of Shiv Sena’s fierce opposition to the demand.
