Nagpur, April 4: All the 11 newly elected members of Parliament from Vidarbha region, including eight from the Congress and three from Republican Party of India, would call on President K R Narayanan on April 7 to apprise him of their demand for creating a separate state of Vidarbha.Addressing a press conference here today, former Union minister of state for rural development and city MP Vilas Muttemwar said that all the MPs, including the three RPI MPs, had shown solidarity on the issue of statehood for Vidarbha.
A delegation of these MPs had already met Prime Minister Vajpayee and reiterated their demand of creating a separate Vidarbha state. They had also handed him a memorandum signed by veteran Congress leaders of Vidarbha, N K P Salve and Vasant Sathe.
In the memorandum, the MPs have expressed their surprise over BJP Government's announcement for statehood to Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chhatisgarh where neither the demand was serious nor any state reorganisation commission had recommended anysuch thing. Muttemwar said that they had also apprised Union Home Minister L K Advani the positive stance of Samata Party leader George Fernandes.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
