M A I N   N E W S

Sathe, Salve quit Congress over Vidarbha issue

Nagpur, August 17
Giving a jolt to the ruling Congress in Maharashtra, two senior leaders and former Union Ministers Vasant Sathe and N.K.P. Salve quit the party and announced the formation of a regional outfit to fight the Congress in next year’s Assembly poll and promote the cause of a separate Vidarbha state.

The new party, the Vidarbha Congress, will be launched on September 2, Mr Salve told a press conference here after addressing a meeting of pro-Vidarbha Congress workers.

“We will fight against the Congress on the issue of statehood to Vidarbha during the Assembly poll”, he said, claiming that the newly formed outfit had been supported by NCP President Sharad Pawar.

Mr Sathe said from Gurgaon that the new party would be ready to align with any party which supported their demand for a separate Vidarbha state.

In Delhi, AICC General Secretary Ambika Sonia sought to downplay the formation of the new party by Mr Sathe and Mr Salve and said the Congress was confident that the two leaders would not do anything to weaken the party ahead of the Assembly poll.

Mr Salve said the Congress high command was “biased” in its response to the demand for statehood for Vidarbha.

“I and Mr Salve were pained to take the decision, but have resorted to it as there was no alternative before us since our efforts to persuade the Congress leadership to agree to the just demand of carving out a separate Vidarbha out of Maharashtra had failed to yield results,” Mr Sathe said.

The septuagenarian leader, who had been in former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi’s Cabinets, spoke of “injustice” to the Vidarbha region over the years, which perpetuated its backwardness.

Mr Sathe, however, said the Congress would remain “our parent body and Ms Sonia Gandhi the leader as we are forming a separate party because of technical reasons and one cannot be a member of two political parties simultaneously.

The development in the Maharashtra Congress came close on the heels of dissent in the party’s Andhra Pradesh unit on the issue of on separate Telangana state ahead of Assembly elections also scheduled for next year. — PTI