In the conference, it was announced that five massive rallies would be held in the last week of November in various parts of Vidarbha and these rallies would reach Nagpur on December 5 which is first day of the winter session of the state assembly.
MNS activists on Tuesday tried to disrupt a press conference organised by Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti but left the Press Club hall just by holding demonstrations for about 15 minutes. Interestingly, VJAS held its press conference by terming the disruption as a small non-cognizable break.
As usual, police officers and constables reached the Press Club only after the MNS workers left the spot. It was the core committee members of the VJAS Wamanrao Chatap, who is a former MLA of Swatantra Bharat Party, Srinivas Khandewale, an economist, Nanda Parate, an advocate and president of Vidarbha State Mahila Organization Rameshkumar Gajbhe, who is a former minister of state and Shanjay Dharmik, a former Income Tax commissioner, held the press conference and announced that agitation for a separate Vidarbha will not be non-violent after December 31.
Chatap said that successive governments have betrayed people of Vidarbha by not fulfilling their promises. He pointed out that the governments agreed that there is a huge development backlog and at present it amounts to almost Rs75,000 crore. Khandewale pointed out that despite the fact that there are no transmissions and distribution losses of power in Vidarbha, people from Vidarbha are paying for the huge 38 per cent T and D losses which are from Western Maharashtra. Khandewale also said that the governments have betrayed Vidarbha by opening textile mills in Western Maharashtra despite the fact that cotton is grown in their region.
Chatap informed that VJAS would organise a mock state assembly session on October 3 and 4 where Khandewale would present a budget for a separate Vidarbha. After an awareness campaign in 100 odd colleges in Vidarbha, 1.07 lakh students have sent e-mails to the president of India, the prime minister and the Union home minister by advocating the need for creating a separate Vidarbha state.
In the conference, it was announced that five massive rallies would be held in the last week of November in various parts of Vidarbha and these rallies would reach Nagpur on December 5 which is first day of the winter session of the state assembly.
Chatap informed that all these five rallies would be attended by thousands of people from Vidarbha and a massive march would be taken to Nagpur assembly on day 1 of the winter session to attract the attention of the state government.
“A case has been registered under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Mumbai Police Act against seven to eight persons, including two corporators and one group leader. No arrests have been made so far,” said senior police inspector Vijay Kadam of Azad Maidan police station.
Taking on BJP and Sena
Soon after the press conference started, MNS leaders including BMC corporators Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri along with Maharashtra Chitrapat Sena president Amey Khopkar entered the hall shouting slogans of a united Maharashtra. They also waived the flag of Maharashtra and told the Vidarbha leaders that they would not allow any talk which may result in fragmentation of Maharashtra. Deshpande told the Vidarbha leaders that they should organise such press conferences in Nagpur. Chatap, unperturbed by the sudden disruption, made it clear that he was allowed by the Indian constitution to hold the press conference and he would go on. The conference was on for almost an hour after this disruption. Chatap criticised chief minister Devendra Fadnavis by saying that BJP bagged 44 seats in Vidarbha on the separate Vidarbha issue. He took on Shiv Sena by saying that if Sena is so worried about a united Maharashtra, why it is silent on the Belgaum issue since Belgaum is not a part of Maharashtra even today.
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