A new regional political party will be born tomorrow as former Congressmen along with protagonists of smaller states will take the battle for formation of a separate Vidarbha state ahead and announce the name of the new party at a rally organised for the occasion.
Former union ministers, N. K. P. Salve and Vasant Sathe and former MP, Banwarilal Purohit, all of whom resigned from the Congress on the separate Vidarbha issue, will participate in the meeting organised by the Vidarbha Rajya Party.
The rally will also be addressed among others by MPs Prakash Ambedkar (BHARIP-BM), Ajit Singh (Lok Dal) and Datta Meghe (Nationalist Congress Party), Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) President and former MP, Dr. K. Chandrashekar Rao and leader of the separate Bundelkhand movement, Babulal Tiwari.
Film actress Vijaya Shanti from Andhra Pradesh, whose name figured in the media recently as a BJP candidate for nomination to the Rajya Sabha, is also expected to attend the rally.
The President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, Ranjit Deshmukh, returned from Delhi on Sunday night having apprised the Congress Highcommand about the developments in the region.
Talking to newsmen, Mr. Deshmukh said, that though the Congress favoured a separate Vidarbha state, it needed more time to formulate its strategy in the light of the ensuing assembly elections in five states. He admitted that party President, Sonia Gandhi was yet to speak to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde on recent developments.
Mr. Salve had earlier said that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was supporting the separate Vidarbha cause and that he was in touch with the NCP leadership.
Referring to the NCP support, Mr. Deshmukh said that the leaders who had left the Congress in their fight for a separate Vidarbha state were falling into
