Nagpur, Aug 18: Veteran leader and former Union Minister N K P Salve, who quit congress to float a new regional outfit, today said he did not want to leave the party but had to quit over the issue of separate ‘vidarbha’. Admitting that MPCC chief Ranjeet Deshmukh and state labour minister Satish Chaturvedi and others met him today in an effort to persuade him not to "take the extreme step", Salve, however, said he has advised them to first meet the Congress high command.

"I am not optimistic about the outcome of their meeting with the party central leadership," he told newspersons.

"They wanted me to put my decision on hold till November after the assembly elections of four states gets over," he added.
"Why should I wait? the party workers have given a mandate on Sunday and have authorised both me and my party colleague former Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Vasant Sathe to float a new party ‘Vidarbha Congress’," he stated.

"Congress seems to be upset over the development here yesterday," salve with 35 years of experience in Parliament said, adding AICC general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Maharashtra Vyalar Ravi called him up today asking if he has left the party.

Salve yesterday floated a new party ‘Vidarbha Congress’ claiming that when he and Sathe met party president Sonia Gandhi last month to apprise her of people's sentiments, she expressed party's inability to create a separate state.

Bureau Report