Sena, BJP cross swords over Vidarbha statehood

The legislative council and the Vidhan Bhavan witnessed uproar over separate statehood for Vidarbha on Tuesday. Legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demonstrated in the Vidhan Bhavan and shouted slogans in the council to push their demand of a Vidarbha state, while the Shiv Sena opposed it, bringing the rift between the two right-wing parties to the fore.

Following arrest of its workers in two districts of Vidarbha on
Tuesday morning, a group of BJP MLAs and MLCs staged a dharna outside the Vidhan Bhawan, which led to 17 BJP leaders being arrested by the police. To keep the momentum alive, BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar tried to move an adjournment motion in the lower house demanding debate on the issue of independent Vidarbha. When speaker Dilip Walse Patil refused, BJP members started shouting slogans in favour of the statehood to the Vidarbha, and then walked out.

In the legislative assembly, BJP’s leader of opposition Pandurang Phundkar demanded that the question hour be cancelled in favour of a debate over Vidarbha statehood. However, Shiv Sena’s Diwakar Raote said that if the question hour had to be cancelled, it should instead be replaced by a debate on the education department’s announcement that permission for 18,000 new Marathi schools cannot be given.

“Vidarbha has always been neglected by the government. The region produces electricity for the state but suffers a load shedding of at least 16 hours. The government has not adhered to the Nagpur agreement,” Phundkar said.

Finally, council chairman Shivajirao Deshmukh ruled that the matter will be discussed in a meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the house on March 26 and a decision will be taken accordingly.