Hyderabad:
Has the Centre's decision to grant a separate state of Telangana opened a Pandora's Box? Inspired by the events unfolding in Telangana, more such demands have been already been resurrected in different parts of the country.
GorkhalandGorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters have announced that they will begin a fast unto death on Friday in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Siliguri and Terai to demand a separate Gorkhaland. At each spot, 21 people will participate in the hunger strike.
The party has also called a bandh in the hills of Darjeeling and Terai on the December 14.
The 11-day hunger strike of K Chandrasekhar Rao, chief of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is credited with being one of the main reasons for the Centre's decision to okay a Telangana state.
Geographically, Gorkhaland is the area around Darjeeling and the Duars in the north of West Bengal. The people of the area are largely Nepali-speaking and the Gorkhas have long struggled for a separate state.
BundelkhandThe Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha (BMM) too has not lost time in announcing a "massive" agitation for a separate Bundelkhand state.
"We had been with the TRS in its struggle for the separate Telangana state and we are happy that their long struggle have started bearing fruit and now we would go all out to launch a massive struggle for Bundelkhand state", BMM President Raja Bundela said on the phone.
"The struggle for Bundelkhand has been going on for the past twenty years as people there have realised that the region cannot develop without separate statehood and now we will give it a fresh momentum," Bundela said, adding that as a first step a 300-km long march from Chitrakoot to Kamtanath in Madhya Pradesh would start from December 16.
There is also a growing realisation in Bundelkhand region that as their "peaceful agitations" have had no impact, drastic means are required to help in getting their demands fulfilled, Bundela said drawing similarities between Bundelkhand and Telangana, both being "provinces which had merged with the union on promise of separate statehood".
The historically significant Bundelkhand region is now divided between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.