BJP to start 'rath yatra' to press for Vidarbha

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resorted to a ‘rath yatra’ to press for a separate Vidarbha state. For a change, the party does not want to make it an emotional issue like the Ram temple but reach out to the people of 11 districts.

Party legislator from Vidarbha, Sudhir Mungantiwar, a frontrunner to take over from Nitin Gadkari as the president of the Maharashtra unit of the party, and Devendra Phadanvis, a confidante of Gadkari, would begin the ‘yatra’ from Friday, till March 14.

Gadkari, who has recently taken over as the BJP national president, has been an ardent advocate of a separate Vidarbha despite a strong opposition by the BJP’s over two-decade old electoral ally, the Shiv Sena.

Incidentally, Shiv Sena has threatened a state wide agitation for ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ (United Maharashtra) especially when the state is celebrating the golden jubilee of its formation.

The ‘rath yatras’ were planned immediately after the party’s national executive meeting last month at Indore where party members favoured formation of small states and the formation of states’ reorganisation committee by the Centre. The timing is also crucial when the tempo for Telangana statehood in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has slowed.

Mungantiwar told Business Standard: “The ‘rath yatras’ are planned to create awareness, especially among the youths on the economic disparity and the step-motherly treatment meted out to Vidarbha over these years. The Congress-led governments have simply neglected Vidarbha be it in irrigation, agriculture, industrial development or education. The idea is to place before the youths, facts and figures to convince them on the necessity of a separate Vidarbha state.”

According to Mungantiwar, though the state-run Mahagenco generated nearly 4,700 Mw power, people in Vidarbha faced acute power shortage. The region is starved of precious irrigation water as it is used for power generation. Moreover, Vidarbha has been in the news for farmers’ suicides. Over the years nearly 36,000 farmers have committed suicide.

Further, despite the implementation of various packages, little has been done to improve agriculture in the region, which used to be one of the top ranking areas at the national level.

In the education sector too, Mungantiwar said there had been a backlog. Of 34 universities in the state, 24 were situated in the developed western Maharashtra while only four were in the Vidarbha region. Meanwhile, the ruling Congress has termed the BJP’s rath yatra a gimmick. A veteran party leader, who does not want to be named, said the Congress-led governments had succeeded in removal of the backlog in irrigation.