The idea of separate statehood for Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region returned to the news cycle, following the report of political strategist Prashant Kishor joining the agitators making the demand.
Senior politician, and former MLA, Ashish Deshmukh had roped Kishor in as a consultant after a series of meetings.
Kishor would now, reportedly, be holding deliberations with pro-Vidarbha protagonists in Nagpur on September 20, which would be followed by a mega public event on September 28.
The Vidarbha region in Maharashtra consists of Nagpur and Amravati divisions, and districts of Yavatmal, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Buldhana, Washim, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gadchiroli and Gondia.
The region is spread over 97,321 sq km and has a population of over 2.3 crore. It occupies 31.6 per cent of total area (of Maharashtra??) and houses 21.3 per cent of the total state population.
“Kishor is well known in the country as a political strategist. Be it Narendra Modi’s victory in 2014 or after, his strategy has been successful in Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Delhi elections. He helped political parties form governments in various states,” said Deshmukh.
“I went to him to ask if he could help to create a new state of Vidarbha. He agreed to my proposal for an independent Vidarbha. In the last two-and-a-half months, an in-depth study and survey was conducted in (the) 11 districts to support the demand for separate Vidarbha,” he said.
Deshmukh pointed out that several small states are doing very well. “They have increased per capita income, increased irrigation facilities, augmented health infrastructure, enhanced education facilities, have better law and order situation, adequate electricity and good standard of living,” he said, pointing out how the human development indices, (of all states involved,) had improved after Chhattisgarh and Telangana were created.
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