Maharashtra Advocate General Shreehari Aney has called for a referendum on the issue of carving out a separate Vidarbha state.
Maharashtra Advocate General Shreehari Aney has called for a referendum on the issue of carving out a separate Vidarbha state.
“If 51 per cent people vote in favour of statehood, then the Centre should create a separate Vidarbha state. I know for sure more than 80 per cent in the region will vote in favour of it and that is why the Central government does not have the courage to go in for a referendum,” Mr Aney said at a function to release his book ‘Vidarbha Gatha’ (The saga of Vidarbha) on Saturday.
He expressed confidence that the referendum would be “in favour” of separate state. Mr Aney, who is the grandson of late Bapuji Aney, a Congress MP from city (1962) and a pro-Vidarbha leader, has written about the history of the statehood struggle and injustice done to the region by successive state governments. “The efforts of private agencies have indicated it (the separate Vidarbha movement) clearly. District Bar Associations in all the 11 districts of Vidarbha have passed resolutions unanimously,” said Mr Aney.
