Andhra Pradesh is well on its way to becoming two States, but not without infusing fresh vigour to a demand for another State in a region faraway. The issue in question is carving out a Bundelkhand State from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Nowhere will it find more resonance than in the Jhansi-Lalitpur constituency as the campaign picks up for the April 30 election. Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda and Chitrakoot are the districts Uttar Pradesh will lose if the new State were to be formed. Datia, Tikamgarh, Chhattarpur, Panna, Sagar and Damoh will be from Madhya Pradesh’s account.
While the Samajwadi Party has always been opposed to the demand, other major political parties are confused about whether or not to support it.
Raja Bundela, actor-turned-politician, had been the face of the Bundelkhand movement until he went back to Mumbai almost giving up the dream following the defeat of his party, Bundelkhand Congress, in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. He now believes that if the Bharatiya Janata Party, a champion of small States, comes to power at the Centre, Bundelkhand will be born.
Development But the party candidate in the constituency, Uma Bharti, maintains that development rather than division should be the priority. Ms. Bharti finds formation of Bundelkhand a difficult task since two States will have to be divided. The demand should, instead, be sent to a new States Reorganisation Commission, she says.
Mr. Bundela, now with the BJP and a supporter of its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, told The Hindu that he would return to Jhansi in the coming days. “After Telangana, [creation of] Bundelkhand appears easier, as do Poorvanchal and Vidarbha,” he told The Hindu from Mumbai.
Many in the region, irrespective of their political affiliations, share his sentiments.
“It is a fact that smaller States are better governed, and Bundelkhand will improve governance and development in the region,” says Hargobind Yadav, farmer and former Pradhan of Bhojla village in Babina, who is close to Chanderpal Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party candidate.
“Bundelkhand has historically remained backward, but for the first time, the Samajwadi Party has taken up many pending development works, which people are appreciating and will be our strength during the election,” Mr. Singh says. The party’s stand has been that Bundelkhand needs development, not division.
The demand for Bundelkhand was voiced way back in the early 1950s when the States Reorganisation Commission was at work. In 2009, Rahul Gandhi, who was then Congress general secretary, announced that the party would support formation of a Bundelkhand State if it came to power at the Centre, but then took a U-turn, saying the Congress believed in the development of the entire region and not forming a separate State. However, with the formation of Telangana, the demand is finding support even within the Congress.
Pradeep Kuman Jain, sitting MP of the Congress, has a tough contest against Ms. Bharti, now Charkhari MLA; Mr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav, a popular figure in Jhansi; and Anuradha Sharma of the Bahujan Samaj Party, a close relative of Ms. Mayawati’s close confidant Satish Mishra. The Aam Aadmi Party, too, has fielded a candidate.
