Cong MP demands Vidarbha state, writes to Sonia

Congress MP Vijay Darda has demanded a separate Vidarbha state to be carved out of Maharashtra, saying the region would not be "liberated from the debilitating grip of backwardness" if it doesn't get freedom.
In a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Darda said "the complete inability of the state government to end the series of farmers' suicides in the wake of agrarian crisis could be said to be the final nail in the coffin."
Darda, a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, said the States Reorganisation Commission had recognised Vidarbha as a separate state but in the interest of one Marathi linguistic state, people agreed to forego this claim, with a special provision of Article 371 of the Constitution.

He said the last six decades have conclusively proved the "failure of this experiment" and now the time has come to grant separate statehood for Vidarbha region.
"The people may not be agitating violently as in Teleangana areas but there is no doubt that they are convinced that their region would not be liberated from the debilitating grip of backwardness unless they have the freedom to chart their own course," Darda said in the letter.
He also said in the letter written on May 20 that Vidarbha had been a bastion for Congress and Former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi had expressed his favourable commitment for separate statehood.

"But the process could not been taken to its logical conclusion for a host of reasons," he said.
The Congress MP said people of Vidarbha feel that irrespective of the fate of the demand for separate Telangana, their need for a separate state be accepted without any further delay, said the Congress MP.
The Congress and the UPA yesterday, shedding its dithering, unanimously decided to create Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.