After the passage of a Bill for the formation of Telangana State in lok Sabha, the Republican Party of India (Athavale) on Wednesday joined the BJP and a section of Congress leaders, in a renewed clamour for a separate Vidarbha State and announced that it would resort to an agitation from February 24 to press for its demand.
A day after the State BJP rooted for the creation of a separate Vidarbha State along the lines of Telangana, RPI(A) president Ramdas Athavale said, “The Centre should have accorded Statehood to Vidarbha region along with Telangana. We intend to launch an agitation to demand Statehood for the backward Vidarbha region”.
Talking to media persons here, Athavale said that he would lead a party delegation to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to press for creation of Vidarbha State, along the lines of Telangana. This time time around, the State BJP was the first political party in Maharashtra to renew the clamour for a separate Vidarbha State.
State BJP president Devendra Fadnavis had said on Tuesday, “My party has already passed a resolution favouring smaller States. We are all for creation of a separate Vidarbha State,” Fadnavis said.