NCP puts ball in the court of Cong, BJP on Vidarbha

NCP puts ball in the court of Cong, BJP on Vidarbha
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NAGPUR, OCT 2: NCP president Sharad Pawar today put the ball in the court of the Congress and the BJP on the issue of carving out a separate Vidarbha state from Maharashtra, saying that if the two major parties in the region supported the demand, his party would back it.

``If Congress and BJP, the major parties in the region, support separate Vidarbha, NCP will back the move,'' Pawar told reporters at the end of two-day National convention of the party here.

He, however, warned that if both the parties attempted to ``play politics'' on the issue, his party would concentrate on other problems.

Asked whether he favoured a referendum in the region to decide the issue, Pawar said the Centre had never accepted proposals for referendum as they had the potential of creating problems in other parts of the country.

Citing an instance, Pawar said the Centre had not accepted the suggestion for a referendum on Belgaum made some 20 years back. Maharashtra and Karnataka are locked in a dispute on boundary areas, including Belgaum, for the past several years.

Speaking separately, senior party leader P A Sangma, came out in strong support of a separate Vidarbha saying that he was for the creation of small and viable states. ``If the US, with a smaller population, can have 56 states why can't we have 50 or more states'', he asked.

Sangma said as a minister of state for home in the Rajiv Gandhi government, he had given a report favouring creation of a separate Vidarbha state on the basis of its economic viability.

While the `Nagpur Resolution', adopted at the meet, did not have any reference to Vidarbha issue, two senior NCP leaders, Praful Patel, MP and Datta Meghe, Minister in Vilasrao Deshmukh Government came out in open support for statehood to the region during the debate.

Pawar and other NCP leaders have been insisting that the party should go by the ``wishes of the people'' on the issue.

He said his party has initiated move for setting up a separate unit for Vidarbha region under the Maharashtra PCC.