Third referendum on separate Vidarbha to be held in Chandrapur

NAGPUR: After Nagpur and Amravati, another round of referendum on whether people want a Vidarbha region to become a separate state or not, will be held in Chandrapur city on January 23.

"Referendum in Chandrapur will be organised jointly by the Vidarbha Joint Action Committee (VJAC) and Senior Citizen Forum on January 23 to mark the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose," VJAC convener and former MLA Wamanrao Chatap told reporters here.

Another referendum will be held in Yavatmal on February 15, he added.

"We are getting an overwhelming response and the referendum would prove that the people of Vidarbha now want get separated from Maharashtra," he said.

The referendum would also give the people of the region a great opportunity to express their solidarity with the cause, he added.

According to Chatap, the demand for separate Vidarbha has a constitutional validity and the region has continued to languish in backwardness, being a part of Maharashtra.

Janmanch, a local NGO, had earlier conducted a referendum in Nagpur during the winter session of the statec legislature.

It had witnessed 5.91 lakh people taking part of the referendum, out of whom 96 per cent had voted favour of the statehood for Vidarbha.

The referendum had been held at a time when Shiv Sena and MNS strongly opposed the bifurcation of the state.

Congress Lok Sabha member from city Vilas Muttemwar, state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar, independent MLAs Ravi Rana, Anil Bonde, RPI leader Jogendra Kawade and former Maharashtra minister Surekha Kunbhare were a part of that referendum.

"The exercise was merely a pointer to the wishes of the people of the region about a separate Vidarbha," Janmanch said here.

A similar exercise had been carried out in Amravati in October last year in which 85 per cent favoured the creation of separate Vidarbha