The Hindu : Pro-Vidarbha group seeks Sonia's assurance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2003

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National

Pro-Vidarbha group seeks Sonia's assurance

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI AUG. 19. A resolution moved by the Congress in the Maharashtra Assembly favouring statehood for Vidarbha, the formation of a Congress committee for the region and an assurance to include statehood as a key element in the party manifesto for the next election are the three conditions on which the proposal to launch the new pro-Vidarbha party in September could be reversed.

Ranjit Deshmukh, State Congress president, and Satish Chaturvedi, Minister, would carry the proposals to the party chief, Sonia Gandhi, when they meet her in New Delhi on Thursday. They would convey to her the pro-Vidarbha leader, N.K.P. Salve's demand that she issue "unambiguous instructions" to the Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, to have such a resolution moved in the winter session of the Assembly.

Speaking over the phone from Nagpur, Mr. Salve said: "we want such an assurance to come from only Ms. Gandhi and not any intermediaries.

If we get such an assurance of a resolution — statehood is no more negotiable — then we may be able to ask the workers who mandated us to form the Vidarbha Rajya Nirman Congress to reconsider it". The key leaders of the move said they could not "wait till November; we do not accept post-dated cheques".

Sources in the pro-Vidarbha camp said the Congress was blind to a political fact: if the resolution was moved, then it could lead to a split between the Shiv Sena and the BJP as the former was vehemently opposed to the carving of a new State out of linguistic Maharashtra.

"It appears that the Congress has no nerve to expose the differences between the principal Opposition parties. This is a God-sent opportunity."

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