BHOPAL: A few weeks after announcing the formation of a new political outfit, the Vindhya Janta Party (VJP) for the cause of a separate Vindhya state, it’s not just the 30 seats of Vindhya region on which ruling BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi is zeroing on.
Instead, he is now working to focus on 64 seats of Vindhya and Bundelkhand region, as well as six seats of state capital Bhopal and Indore, out of the total 230 assembly seats in the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh due this year.
“Prior to 1956, both the Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions formed the erstwhile Vindhya state. Owing to it only, our movement for a separate Vindhya state no longer just focuses on 30 seats of Rewa and Shahdol divisions of the Vindhya/Baghelkhand region, but also 34 seats of the Bundelkhand region,” a source close to Tripathi told this newspaper on Tuesday.
Tripathi is a four-time sitting BJP MLA from the Maihar seat in the Assembly.
Tripathi has recently met a young politician fighting for the cause of Bundelkhand in MP and a veteran politician and ex-UP minister to get support for his cause of a Vindhya state comprising both Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions.
While Tripathi is going to work with young Bundelkhand politician Shiv Pratap Singh in Chhatarpur (MP), he has also met Badshah Singh, former BJP veteran and ex-minister in the Mayawati-led BSP government in Hamirpur district of UP.
“We’re working at forming a third front in MP ahead of the assembly polls, at least in the Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions. We’re open to like-minded parties who are with the cause of a separate Vindhya state comprising Bundelkhand region of MP as well,” said Tripathi.
The BJP did remarkably well in 2018 in Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions. He said the slogan for the new outfit is ‘Jo Vindhya ki Baat Karega, Vahi MP Par Raaj Karega’.
Sources said the new party will either contest on its own or support strong candidates on four seats of Bhopal and two seats of Indore.
“It was the Vajpayee government that paved the way for the creation of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, but the same party at the Centre and in MP is opposed to the aspirations of people of Vindhya region for a state of its own,” said a source close to Tripathi.