Mayawati today shot off a second letter to the PM seeking carving out of 'Poorvanchal' comprising eastern parts of the state.
UP’s political cauldron is on the boil over the demand for smaller states. Sensing the mood, chief minister Mayawati dashed off a letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday stating that her government was willing to carve out the new state of Poorvanchal (east UP), provided the Centre gives the go-ahead. By putting the ball in the Centre’s court, the BSP has created a catch-22 situation for the Congress.
“The formation of the new state of Poorvanchal has become imperative considering the need for better administrative management and the aspirations of the people (of this region),” Mayawati said in the letter to the PM. Besides Poorvanchal, the BSP chief had recently written to the PM for the Centre’s approval for two other new states — Bundelkhand (comprising areas of southern UP and Madhya Pradesh) and Harit Pradesh (western UP).
Mayawati pointed out in her letter that her government had made its stand over Poorvanchal known as early as on October 31, 2007 in the Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly), additional cabinet secretary Vijay Shankar Pande told reporters.
The CM had also made an announcement to this effect at a BSP rally in Lucknow on October 9, 2007, he said.
With her latest gambit, Mayawati has stumped her political opponents, setting the political agenda for the 2012 assembly election. The Telangana dispute has landed her a potent issue, virtually out of nowhere, on a platter. The shrewd politician that she is, Mayawati is sure to exploit the “smaller states” issue to the hilt in the run-up to the next election.
The electoral importance of Poorvanchal does not beg exaggeration. It is a politically volatile area comprising 27 districts, making it the largest region compared to central UP, west UP and Bundelkhand. The region has the largest chunk of Vidhan Sabha (147) and Lok Sabha (28) seats, too. BSP holds the maximum number of these seats.
The BSP’s main rival, the Samajwadi Party (SP), does not support the creation of Poorvanchal. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has often said that smaller states are prone to political bullying by the Centre. “Creation of smaller states adds to the problems of administration and development rather than solve them,” SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhary said. “Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are examples before us,” he said.
Both the Congress and BJP seem to have adopted a “wait-and-watch” policy on the states issue. “Congress is not against smaller states. In fact, our party manifesto talks of setting up a second States Reorganisation Commission,” UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said. “It should be left to this commission to decide which states need to be divided,” she said, quickly adding that this was her personal view.
UP BJP president Ramapati Ram Tripathi toed the line. “Demand for new states should be referred to a new commission,” he said. “After Uttarakhand, we don’t think there is any need for further division of UP,” he said.
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