Addressing a joint press conference, they justified their decision to admit Gawli's Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) into the coordination committee headed by them. They have found Gawli as a strong ally to counter the Shiv Sena, the only major party opposing the separate Vidarbha demand.

Support from any quarters is welcome in achieving statehood for Vidarbha and since the Sena is the biggest hurdle in the way of statehood for Vidarbha region, support from a strong ally like Gawli's ABS is most welcome, they stated. They also preferred to describe Gawli as ``bhoomiputra'' (son of the soil), saying that he was born in a village in Amravati district.

The coordination committee headed by them passed a resolution welcoming Gawli's decision to extend support to the demand for separate Vidarbha. The committee also agreed to allow representatives of ABS to attend thecommittee meetings.

Most committee leaders expressed willingness to join the morcha planned by the Akhil Bharatiya Sena to the state legislature on December 17 during the winter session in support of the demand for statehood to Vidarbha. The committee meeting passed another resolution to appeal to MPs from Vidarbha to forcefully raise the issue in the Parliament sesion.

In another resolution, the committee strongly criticised the State government for the delay in submitting its reply to a notice served by a division Bench of the Bombay High Court in response to a petition filed by committee leader, Shankarrao Gedam, seeking early steps for removal Vidarbha's developmental backlog. The backlog, according to an official report, mounted to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore by 1994-95.

Referring to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi's decision to set up a five-member team to study the issue of viability of smaller states, the coordination committee expressed the hope that the team would submit its report withoutdelay and pave the way for the Congress Working Committee to pass a resolution in support of Vidarbha and other smaller states.