Pro-Vidarbha state parties have failed at the hustings

Nagpur: Former advocate general Shrihari Aney may have formed a new party on Vidarbha statehood plank with an aim to contest elections but history shows that pro-Vidarbha parties and candidates have fared poorly at hustings.
The most successful politician contesting polls on a pro-Vidarbha plank was Jambuwantrao Dhote. He had won the state assembly elections in 1962 and 1967 on an All India Forward Bloc ticket from Yavatmal before launching a full-fledged pro-Vidarbha agitation.Contesting on a statehood plank, he defeated the Congress candidate in 1971 parliamentary elections from Nagpur.
In 1970s, Dhote had galvanized the Vidarbha statehood movement. His rallies attracted thousands of people without employing the usual tactics employed by political parties to ensure a good attendance.
However, when Indira Gandhi split Congress in 1978, he joined her party. Indira Gandhi had made vague promises of granting statehood to Vidarbha. Dhote practically abandoned the Vidarbha statehood agitation after joining the Congress. This proved to be his undoing. Although he won the 1980 parliamentary election from Nagpur contesting on a Congress (I) ticket, he soon went into political oblivion. He tried to relaunch the statehood movement in 2002 by founding Vidharbha Janta Congress (VJC) but it flopped in the elections.
Earlier, Shrihari Aney’s grandfather, Bapuji had won the 1962 parliamentary elections from Nagpur as a candidate of Nag Vidarbha Andolan Samiti on Vidarbha statehood plank. He was a prominent Congress leader, who was the governor of Bihar from 1948 to 1952. By 1967, he was ailing and did not contest the 1967 elections. He passed away a few months later. Aney was one of the prominent Vidarbha statehood leaders during 1960s. Brijlal Biyani was another prominent statehood activist but he did not win any elections after formation of Maharashtra.
Banwarilal Purohit is another prominent politician who contested the polls on a pro-Vidarbha plank. The three-time MP resigned from Congress in 2003 to form his own political outfit Vidarbha Rajya Party (VRP). He had expected to form an alliance with Datta Meghe of Congress, Sharad Joshi of Shetkari Sangathana and Prakash Ambedkar of BRP-BMS but things did not work out.
Purohit and his candidates fared poorly in the 2004 parliamentary elections. The elections had been contested in a hurry and other than Purohit and Yavatmal candidate Kishor Tiwari, there were no well known names in the party. The party also flopped in the assembly elections held a few months later.
There are a several small pro-Vidarbha parties, some of whose candidates have contested elections, without leaving a mark or have not contested elections at all.