NAGPUR, Aug 5: Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Bhausaheb Mulak has once again reminded the Congress leaders of the region about their commitment to a separate Vidarbha state and formation of a separate Vidarbha Congress Committee and has asked them why they were keeping mum ever since Ranjit Deshmukh was made the president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).

Earlier, in the regional party convention held in Nagpur last month, Mulak and a group of senior Congress leaders of the region had criticised Deshmukh for not taking up the Vidarbha issue.

In retaliation, the MPCC had served a show cause notice to Mulak and his associates. However, Mulak and his supporters, in their reply sent to MPCC last fortnight, justified their stand and asserted that stressing the issue was not an anti-party activity.

In an appeal circulated among all prominent party workers in the region recently, Mulak asked the Congress men of the region to follow up on the issue as it was a matter of their ``self-respect''.

Criticising the party leadership in the region he said that the Congress leaders of Vidarbha, who had begun a public awareness campaign from Sindkhed Raja, the birthplace of Jijamata in Buldhana district, a few months back, now seemed disinterested in the issue. Ranjit Deshmukh had been one of the convenors of that agitation, he pointed out. He also alleged that some Congress leaders, were going back on their commitment to a separate state once they had got important posts in the party.

Mulak said there was no alternative to a separate Vidarbha for the overall development of the region. He also appealed to the party workers to take a united stand on the issue.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Mulak, however, praised the party Lok Sabha member, Datta Meghe, for initiating a private bill on separate Vidarbha in Parliament. The proposed bill will be tabled during the ongoing Parliament session for debate. ``All party MPs should support the Bill and ensure that it should be adopted in the House,'' he urged.

The former Maharashtra minister has sent his appeal to about 2,000 prominent party workers in the region and is also planning to hold a convention on the issue soon.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.