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Home > News > Opinion News > Article > Dharmendra Jore Separate Vidarbha Thats not happening

Dharmendra Jore: Separate Vidarbha? That's not happening

Updated on: 19 February,2018 06:24 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Dharmendra Jore | dharmendra.jore@mid-day.com

With no time left to fulfil the promise made earlier ahead of polls, BJP is set to face flak from people from the region who had voted for it wholeheartedly in 2014

Dharmendra Jore: Separate Vidarbha? That's not happening

Dharmendra JoreWhile the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government has promised to attract an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore to be spread across the economically-depleted corners of Maharashtra, at a convergence of CEOs in Mumbai, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar's comment on separate statehood for Vidarbha has caused massive dissent in the region, which had voted wholeheartedly for his party, not only in the Lok Sabha, but also in the Assembly polls in 2014.


Mungantiwar, who is pro-Vidarbha, said the BJP was not in a position to make a resolution for a separate state of Vidarbha, as it didn't have majority in the House. Now, a debate has started whether the state government really needs such a resolution, because carving out a separate state is entirely the job of the Union government where the BJP has a brute majority.


Going back on given word?
Proponents of Vidarbha state haven't stopped reminding the BJP that it was a promise to carve out a separate government for the backward region that put the party in a formidable position. And when Fadnavis, a local favourite, who fought for the cause in the 15 years of legislative position that he held in the Opposition, was made the CM of Maharashtra, hopes soared.


Four years later, the BJP seems to be in a tight corner over the Vidarbha issue, with no pushing forward the seven-decade-old demand. It will have a lot of explaining to do when it goes to voters in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Opportunity has gone
Lawyer Fadnavis' professional guru, Shrihari Aney, who quit as Maharashtra's advocate general over a demand for Vidarbha, and later founded a political party to keep his disciple under some pressure, sees the opportunity gone, at least for the remaining period of BJP governments in the state and Centre.

"This government has successfully avoided creating Vidarbha state," he told me. "The Constitution does not require concurrence of the state legislature (a resolution supporting splitting of the state). The Centre needs to pass a bill to carve out a new state. Punjab legislature had opposed creation of Haryana and Himachal. Uttar Pradesh had opposed Uttaranchal. Bihar had opposed Jharkhand, and Andhra had opposed Telangana. But once the procedure of referring the bill was done, Parliament went ahead to pass the bill and created those states."

Aney says all this is now academic. The last possible chance to introduce a bill was this budget session, which has already begun. "Such a bill would normally have to pass through nine parliamentary committees and through both Houses and be sent to Maharashtra legislature for expression of its view. All this cannot happen before the next general election," he said.

Do anti-Vidarbha parties matter?
BJP's reluctance to fulfil the promise - it has been saying that creating smaller states is its priority - is blamed on ally Shiv Sena, which does not want to break the state into two. A larger section in the Congress and the entire NCP does not support statehood for Vidarbha.

Considering the present political situation, delay tactics appease the Sena, which is becoming a necessity for the BJP if it has to fight out the Congress-NCP combination that is shaping up yet again. However, the learned pro-Vidarbha activists and political leaders, including the BJP office-bearers and legislators, feel that the opinion of the Sena, NCP or MNS has no legal value because Parliament has to pass the bill.

But BJP's think tank doesn't want to rush into the decision. It has devised a plan to overcast the separate state demand with the development agenda that is being implemented robustly by Fadnavis and his party senior Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

It's taken funds, mega projects and infrastructure to Vidarbha. Irrigation and road projects were fast-tracked. Industries — textile parts and processing units supporting agriculture, software companies that employ its engineers, a defence equipment project, a cargo hub and dry ports, and super communications highway connecting Nagpur with Mumbai — are seen as magnet to woo voters, who gave it 44/122 Assembly and six Lok Sabha seats in 2014.

It would be interesting to see how much of Magnetic Maharashtra's investments go to Vidarbha. Rural unrest is intensified with bad crops, farm suicides and delayed loan waiver. Other than the strength that BJP will draw from a committed vote bank, what is going to benefit it is a weaker Opposition, mainly a feud-infested Congress, which appears to be nowhere in terms of unity of leadership and workers.

The demand for statehood for Vidarbha was first raised before Independence. It gained momentum again because a party that vouches for statehood is in power in the state and Centre. Come elections and the voices will rise again, this time seeking answers from the BJP.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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