Chitra Subramaniam | The News Minute | October 9, 2014 | 2.11 pm ISTNagpur is the city where India’s legendary cricketer C.K Nayudu was born. It is also the city where the Maharashtra government’s winter session is held.It could very well become the capital of India’s 30th state – Vidarbha.The Bharatiya Janata Pary’s (BJP) state chief Devendra Fadnavis, who hails from Nagpur has said the issue of a separate statehood is firmly on the cards of the party predicted to take the largest number of votes in state elections that are to be held on October 15. It is not a poll issue which is dominated by price rise and corruption, but the issue is never far from political discourse. Rival parties ranging from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to the BJP’s former ally Shiv Sena as well as rival parties like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have ben quick to point out that the state will be divided in the name of development if the BJP comes to power. In his campaign speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said no one can separate Maharashtra from Mumbai without commenting on Vidarbha but praising Fadnavis as a strong leader. Political watchers say this can be double edged – the state party chief is being projected either as a future face of a leader in Maharashtra (where the death of Gopinath Munde has left a vaccuum) or Vidarbha if and when it happens. “If they could separate Vidharbha region from Maharashtra then who would stop them from carving out Mumbai from the state,†MNS chief Raj Thackeray said earlier this week. His commnents followed that of his now estranged brother and Shiv sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray who said “Prime Minister NarendraModi makes a promise of unified Maharashtra, and in no time thir leaders DevendraFadnavis and Nitin Gadkari start saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party is keen to have a separate state of Vidarbha. This clearly shows their double talk and it clearly exposes their sinister plans to divide Maharashtra.†Vidarbha has been in headlines in recent times mostly for farmer’s suicides and droughts, but it was not always so. Central India’s largest city Nagpur is in India’s Vidarbha region which was called the Central Province by the British who took it over after defeating the Bhonsle dynasty. The area stretched from Raipur in the east (now Chattisgarh) to Dhule in the west, Chandrapur in the south to Jabalpur in the north. Nagpur that speaks Marathi and Hindi was also important for the British government which stationed central government offices in the city including the Audits and Accounts Office and the Office of the Post Master General. One of India’s freedom struggle’s important newspapers – Hitavada – established by Gopal Krishna Gokhale in 1911 was also based in Nagpur. Poll predictions show the BJP in the lead for the assembly elections. The party has not been opposed to splitting large and unweildly states (Chattisgarh, Jharkhand) to ensure better governance and development. What that means for Vidarbha – if anything at all – only time will tell, but calls for a separate state are not about to quieten down.