NCP Supports Telangana: Pawar Supports Vidarbha State Demand

New Delhi: NCP, main alliance party in UPA is strongly supporting the formation of Telangana state. Union minister and NCP chief Sarad Pawar requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce Telangana immediately. It is informed that announcing Telangana state will help for the formation of Vidarbha state. NCP leader Tiwari said that they are in favour of formation of Vidarbha state.  Speaking to the media, he said that he requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce the Telangana state immediately. He asked him to call for a meeting of UPA alliance and discuss the issue.

Telangana and Vidarbha are the oldest demands for separate states. Vidarbha is a district in the east of Maharashtra. This is the most undeveloped area in Maharashtra. Nagpur is the largest city in Vidarbha. Vidarbha has plenty of resources. The region is full of forests and mountains. Vidarbha has 11 districts. It has Amaravati and Nagpur divisions. There are 10 Lok sabha constituencies and 62 Assembly constituencies. Fazal commission recommended formation of Vidarbha state with Nagpur as the capital in 1956.

Prafful Patel, another minister from NCP spoke to the media reporters on 31st January, 2013. Responding to the question of journalist on why their party is suddenly supporting Telangana, he said this is not their new stand and they are supporting Telangana from the beginning. Replying to another questions he said Hyderabad naturally becomes part of Telangana. He suggested that Hyderabad can be made a common capital until Andhra has a new capital. He hinted that Congress party decided in favour of Telangana district. He also added that he is also supporting the demands of Vidarbha and Gorkhaland.

DP Tripati of NCP also strongly supported Telangana. He said Telangana should be announced immediately and they are supporting the Vidarbha state demand too. When asked about second SRC, he said there is a demand to solve various problems with SRC and a decision will be taken depending on the situations.

Meanwhile congress senior leader Hanumantha Rao met union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and later informed that he requested him to take a decision as soon as possible on Telangana and the minister responded positively. Union minister Manish Tiwari said Telangana issue is being discussed by the government and said the suggestions of Sharad Pawar cabinet will be taken into consideration.

Telangana congress MPs said seven of them have given their resignations to Sonia Gandhi and until their resignations are approved they will continue in the Congress party. They said they are resigning for the sake of Telangana. The MPs met in the residence of Congress senior leader KK.