Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh split in offing

 

New Delhi: After bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are fuelling the demand for division in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the two key states, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections with a calculation that this would help them in winning seats.

 

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s confidante and Union minister Jairam Ramesh made a strong pitch for the division of UP shortly after Parliament passed the controversial Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill.

 

“This is my personal opinion for the last 15 years that good governance is not possible in Uttar Pradesh. Good governance is very difficult in today’s Uttar Pradesh. We should ponder over its future,” Mr Ramesh had said.  

 

His statement would certainly please Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati whose government had adopted a resolution in the UP Assembly in November 2011 for the state to be divided further.

 

Following Mr Ramesh’s statement, the BJP said that the statehood of Vidarbha would be a part of the NDA’s “common minimum programme” for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

 

“The issue of separate statehood to Vidarbha would be part of our common minimum progra-mme,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in Mumbai.