Samajwadi Party, which is opposed to the idea of any further division of the state, has ignored the issue in its campaign fearing that such a development might harm its electoral prospects while giving an edge to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) headed by Ajit Singh, BJP and Congress.
Chhattisgarh from UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh respectively, it was believed that further division of UP might find favour with it but the party has been silent on the issue and understandably so as its stakes are high.
The saffron party has preferred skirting the issue in these election though it even recently used to emphasise on giving recognition to regional aspirations.
Samajwadi Party, which is opposed to the idea of any further division of the state, has ignored the issue in its campaign fearing that such a development might harm its electoral prospects while giving an edge to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) headed by Ajit Singh, BJP and Congress.
The BJP manifesto is silent on the issue and speaks only about setting up Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal development boards if voted to power in UP.
All the more interesting is the fact that Ajit Singh's RLD, which used to sing the Harit Pradesh tune every election, is silent on the issue which even five years ago was central to campaigning by almost all political parties barring SP.
Besides RLD, Raja Bundela's Bundelkhand Congress, Kalyan Singh's erstwhile Jan Kranti Party, Amar Singh's now defunct Rashtriya Lok Manch and Ayub Khan's Peace Party -- all pitched for division of the state -- but most of them drew a blank in the Assembly elections in 2012.
While Mayawati's strength dropped to 80 seats from 206, RLD got nine - one less than the previous tally, and Peace Party could get only four. On the other hand, Samajwadi Party, the only party to oppose the demand, stormed to power with a landslide victory, bagging 224 of the 403 Assembly seats.
Analysts said one reason could be the fact that people took pride in being residents of one of the country's largest state and did not wish to give up that identity.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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