5,000 march to Gadkari’s Nagpur home

NAGPUR: Shouting slogans, around 5,000 pro-Vidarbha activists marched to Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s house under the leadership of former legislator Wamanrao

NAGPUR: Shouting slogans, around 5,000 pro-Vidarbha activists marched to Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s house under the leadership of former legislator Wamanrao Chatap of Vidarbha Rajya Andolan Samiti on August Kranti Day on Tuesday.

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“At the Bhubaneswar BJP conclave, the party had passed a resolution for the creation of Vidarbha state. Later, on umpteen occasions, the top party leaders only repeated the promise. Now that the party is in power at the Centre and the state, it is dithering on its promise,” said Ram Neole, a leader of the Samiti.

He said that a large number of farmers, students, women and youngsters from across various districts of Vidarbha had gathered to remind Gadkari of his promise.

Before being elected as an MP from Nagpur, Gadkari had publicly supported the cause of a separate Vidarbha. He has, however, been silent on the issue since his induction into the Union cabinet. “If Gadkari wants to then he can fulfil the promise for a separate state. The Union government has the power to carve out the state without the permission of the state legislature,” Neole said.

The minister had recently stated that the issue of separate statehood was being hyped only by the media and intellectuals and it was of little interest to the common people. Responding to that, Neole said, “Today’s morcha has shown Gadkari that the movement was carried out not only by the media, but also the public.”

The police reached the spot and dispersed the protesters.