...and demands division of state

NEW DELHI: The Congress has hit upon a new survival mantra for Uttar Pradesh: division of the state.

Pushed to fringes of the state’s politics since 1989, the Congress has been struggling to remain relevant in a state that was once considered its pocket borough.

Having employed all kinds of stratagems, including making Rahul Gandhi the party’s mascot, its leadership now believes that the only way out is to carve up the state.

A delegation of Congress leaders led by Rita Bahuguna, the newly appointed UPCC president, called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for the creation of a separate state called Bundelkhand, comprising Jhansi and Banda.

For a party that has been in the doldrums for almost two decades, the latest demand appears to be a desperate measure to stem the growth of parties like the SP and the BSP, which have pushed the Congress party to a position of an also -ran in the state.

The demand for the division is not new,  Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh has been consistently calling for the creation of Harit Pradesh out of the districts of Western UP.
j_ansari@dnaindia.net