Published On : Wed, May 27th, 2015

First anniversary Shah gift for Vidarbha – no statehood!

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Newdelhi/Nagpur: With the whole Modi cabinet touring the country in a bid to spread good cheer about Modi Govt’s one year in office; BJP President and close Modi aide Amit Shah has chosen to play spoil sport for Vidarbha. Backtracking from the official BJP line assuring full support for Vidarbha state, he now claims this promise was never made! His stance has left Vidarbha politicians, including CM Fadnavis, with no ground to stand on.

Ostensibly ruling BJP is claiming that it is state ‘ally’ Shiv Sena that has tied its hands. Shiv Sena’s total allegiance to ‘intact Maharashtra’ is well known: in fact it would like to increase state’s territory by including disputed areas in Karnataka, like Belgaum and Dharwad, and even the whole state of Goa into the state. They are dead against letting Vidarbha go its separate way as in independent state. They claim that if such a thing happens “outsiders” ( read ‘Marwaris’) will come to power leaving Marathi speaking people high and dry.

Citing this stance of Shiv Sena as an excuse, Shah said that though BJP has favoured smaller states like Chatisgarh and Telengana, it cannot give statehood to Vidarbha since they do not enjoy a majority in Maharashtra and their ally Sena will never allow it. He went further and said, that in fact, BJP has never really supported formation of separate Vidarbha and it was never promised to electorate.
Shah said all this while speaking at a press conference in Delhi to celebrate one year of Modi government.

This opinion of the party president is totally contradictory to the assurances and utterances made by Vidarbha leaders such as Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. They have been promising groups and organizations fighting for the cause of Vidarbha that they are in sync with this demand and it is what they want too. It was part of their election manifesto during the Lok Sabha elections.
Now Shah has rubbished this ‘official stand’ of his own party men. What will leaders of Vidarbha say now? Remember there was a time when Fadnavis had made that famous statement that gladdened the hearts of Vidarbha people so much? – “I would rather be CM of the state of Vidarbha than that of Maharashtra?”

Now as Maharashtra CM will he allow this Vidarbha dream to die?