Rajbhar for creation of Purvanchal state

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

A decade after Bahujan Samaj Party president and then Chief Minister Mayawati raised the demand for splitting Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states, Suheldeo Bharat Samaj Party chief and Cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar backed the proposal of division of the state.

Demanding creation of Purvanchal state comprising eastern UP districts, Rajbhar said, “Illiteracy, poverty and unemployment are at the peak in Purvanchal. These could only be eliminated if division takes place and a separate Purvanchal state is carved out.”

“The people in Purvanchal are demanding a separate state. UP is so huge that development of Purvanchal is not possible without a division,” the SBSP chief said in Varanasi on Friday.

Rajbhar also hit out at China for doing business in India, pointing out that China used the money earned from trade to buy weapons.

“China has taken over our consumer market. Their products are sold throughout India. China does business here and uses the money to buy weapons and threaten India. I believe if China’s business licence is revoked, crores of youths will get jobs here,” Rajbhar said.

Earlier, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, had also said that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the idea of making Purvanchal in UP and Vidarbha in Maharashtra as two separate states. 

In October 2007, former Chief Minister Mayawati had raised the demand for division of UP into four states — east, west, central and Bundelkhand. 

Samajwadi Party, which was the major opposition, had vociferously opposed the demand, saying that it was an “anti-people idea’ and served no purpose while causing huge additional burden on the exchequer.  

In November 2011, the then BSP government had also introduced and passed a resolution in the Assembly for division of UP into four states and sent the resolution to the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. However, the Central government ignored the resolution.

In the last one decade, murmurs of UP being divided into four new states — Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschhim Pradesh, has been gaining ground as it is felt that smaller states will be easy to administer and development will hasten in the regions.