Vidarbha statehood demand missing from poll narratives in Maharashtra

Nagpur: Nagpur's Zero Mile, which is India's geographical centre, forms the hub of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region.

For more than a century, a large section of people in the region have been demanding that Vidarbha should be a separate state - a campaign that started much before the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, which led to the creation of Maharashtra as a Marathi-linguistic state on May 1, 1960.

The region is known for its tigers, oranges, cotton, coal as well as its unique food culture.

The Vidarbha region has links to Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The region - spread across 97,404 sq kms - occupies 31.6 per cent of the total area and holds 21.3 per cent of the total population of Maharashtra.

In terms of size, Vidarbha - which has 11 districts spread across two revenue divisions of Nagpur and Amravati - is bigger than several Indian states.

On May 1, 1960, the Vidarbha region - which was carved out of Central Provinces and Berar - was merged with the newly-formed Maharashtra.

The demand for a separate Vidarbha is over a century old and has led to protests in the past.

Come the Lok Sabha or the Vidhan Sabha elections - and the demand for statehood for the central Indian region of Vidarbha gains momentum.

However, in the 2024 general elections, the Vidarbha statehood demand seems to be missing from the poll narratives and assurances of the major political parties and coalitions.

"We are sure, one day, the dream of Vidarbha would be realised," said Anil Bhau, a Nagpur resident.

Vidarbha has 10 Lok Sabha seats which go to polls during Phase-1 and Phase-2 of the 2024 general elections.

Amid the heat and dust of electioneering, DH spoke to key leaders and activists spearheading the demand for separate a Vidarbha - Prabhakar Kondbattunwar, a veteran journalist, writer and thinker, Wamanrao Chatap, a former MLA and farmers' leader, and Shrihari Aney, former Advocate General.

According to them, both the main parties - BJP and Congress and their allies have failed them over the years. However, it is a people’s movement and they have not lost hope.

Kondbattunwar asserted that Vidarbha fulfils every condition to become a state with Nagpur as the capital city.

“Nagpur has a Vidhan Sabha complex, government and ministerial bungalows, MLA hostels, big office complexes, a bench of Bombay High Court, international airport, railway station complex, bus depot, and so on,” he said.

“The Vidarbha region has 70 to 80 per mineral resources of the state, it accounts for 65 per cent power production, it has its coal resources, it has 56 per cent of the state's jungle,” he added.

According to Kondbattunwar, the Vidarbha region has its own character, culture and identity despite being a Marathi-speaking region. "Vidarbha has everything to become a state and that too an ideal state," he said and lamented that the Centre and State governments in the past have not shown the will to carve out Vidarbha as a separate state.

“We believed in the promises of Congress, the assurances of the BJP…but both the Congress and the BJP and their respective alliances have let the people of the region down. It is a people's agitation, people's demand, it cannot be conveniently bypassed…the people have been not only waiting for five decades or seven decades but over a century. People will show these political parties in the days and years to come,”said Chatap.

“We have not lost hope. It's a people’s demand and the movement would continue,” said Aney, adding, “The demand of statehood for Vidarbha makes sense. Administrative and economic viability is the reason.”

The Vidarbha region has given four Maharashtra Chief Ministers - Vasantrao Naik, Marotrao Kannamwar, Sudhakarrao Naik, and Devendra Fadnavis.

The Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Highway, named after the late Balasaheb Thackeray, has made the region accessible in a shorter time.

But for the people of Vidarbha, a separate state eludes them still.