Pawar, who was here a couple of days back, said in a public meeting that the sentiments of the people of Vidarbha should be respected by the rulers of the country irrespective of their party affiliation.

The Maratha strongman also said that he would raise the issue of a separate Vidarbha when the Bill for formation of the three states -- Chhattisgarh, Vananchal and Uttarakhand -- came up before the Lok Sabha.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Deshmukh, pointed out that this was the first time that a national-level Congress leader had come out openly in support of the formation of a separate state of Vidarbha. ``Now it will be easy to achieve our goal of a separate state,'' he said, and pointed out that barring Shiv Sena all political parties had supported the demand.

Deshmukh said pro-Vidarbha Congress activists would alsoexplore the possibilities of initiating an unofficial Bill on Vidarbha.

On Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's reported statement that he and his party would not allow any division of Maharashtra, Deshmukh said it was meant to appease his Guru Balasaheb Thackeray, who was opposing the bifurcation of the State.

It was Thackeray, who once said that if the Sena-BJP Government failed to remove the developmental backlog of the region within the next two years he would himself launch an agitation for the formation of Vidarbha state, he pointed out and said that now three-and-a-half years had already passed but Thackeray was yet to fulfill his commitment.