Congress MP backs UP Minister OP Rajbhar’s remarks calling for division of Uttar Pradesh into four parts
Congress MP Masood said he would support the division of Uttar Pradesh and argued that breaking up the state could benefit the country.
Congress leader Imran Masood on Monday backed the proposal to divide Uttar Pradesh into smaller states, saying the state’s vast geographical size makes administration and travel difficult.
Masood was responding to recent remarks made by Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who said Uttar Pradesh could eventually be divided into four parts. Rajbhar has said the proposed regions would include Purvanchal, Madhyanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh.
Masood backs three-way division
Masood said he would support the division of Uttar Pradesh and argued that breaking up the state could benefit the country.
‘I support the division of Uttar Pradesh. I would be very happy if Uttar Pradesh is divided because it is a very big state and it will benefit the country. Uttar Pradesh is such a big state that if you have to travel from one corner to another, it takes more than 24 hours. There are many countries in the world that are smaller than Uttar Pradesh’, Masood said.
He also said people in Western Uttar Pradesh have to travel around 800 kilometres to seek justice.
Suggesting how the state could be reorganised, Masood said Western Uttar Pradesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand should be made separate states.
‘The West should become a separate state, the East should become a separate state, and Bundelkhand should become a separate state. People in Western Uttar Pradesh have been demanding this for a long time’, he said.
Rajbhar revives four-state proposal
Rajbhar earlier in the day revived the debate over dividing India’s most populous state, calling the move inevitable. He also said that if Purvanchal were carved out as a separate state, having a Chief Minister from the Rajbhar community would be a non-negotiable condition for any future electoral alliance.
‘The division of the state is inevitable. When the state is divided—encompassing regions like Purvanchal, Madhyanchal, Bundelkhand, and Harit Pradesh, if you look at the area where we are currently seated, starting from Ambedkar Nagar, the Rajbhar community holds the largest vote share across the entire Purvanchal region. Therefore, for any party entering into an alliance, it will be a predetermined condition that the Chief Minister of the future Purvanchal state will be from the Rajbhar community’, Rajbhar said.
His remarks have revived the issue ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Debate dates back decades
Rajbhar is not the first political leader to call for a restructuring of Uttar Pradesh. In 1955, BR Ambedkar suggested dividing the state into three smaller states in his book Thoughts on Linguistic States.
In 2011, the Mayawati-led BSP government passed a resolution in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly proposing the division of the state into four regions. The proposal, however, did not move forward as the Centre took no further action.
At present, no official decision or legislative move has been initiated to implement the division of Uttar Pradesh.