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COLUMN: UP elections 2017: Bundelkhand ‘state’ no longer an issue?

The demand for a separate Bundelkhand state, or for that matter the division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller and more manageable states, has not found its place in the campaign content this time

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The Uttar Pradesh assembly election moves into its next phase with polling scheduled on February 23 in 12 districts of Bundelkhand and south-eastern region involving 53 constituencies. The erstwhile Congress bastion of Rae Bareli will also see polling in this round where alliance partners Samajwadi Party is pitted against the Congress.

The Bundlekhand region comprises seven districts in UP -- Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur, Mahoba in Jhansi and Chitrakoot divisions, and it borders Madhya Pradesh. Incidentally, seven districts of MP (Sagar, Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Damoh, Datia and Vidisha) are also part of the larger Bundelkhand and these 14 districts of the two states are included in the so-called separate Bundelkhand state by the proponents of the idea. It was for no small reason that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan campaigned extensively in the UP Bundelkhand region for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav at a public rally

Even UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has been paying special attention to the region and there was a time some months ago that reports of his contesting assembly election from this region had been floated. Later, however, the chief minister himself had said that since he was a member of the UP legislative council and therefore did not need to contest the election at all. The Bundelkhand region has seen launching of several new projects and these have come on top of the famed 'Bundelkhand Package' announced by the previous UPA government at the centre some years ago.

The UPA government had in November 2009 approved Rs 7,277-crore Drought Mitigation Special Package for the integrated development of the drought-hit Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with the allocation for Uttar Pradesh being Rs 3,606 crore initially.

Yet, the region remains one of the most backward in the state with no worthwhile activity in either agriculture or industry in any district except for Jhansi, which is a traditional railway and defence town. Prolonged drought and the absence of any long-term strategy for integrated development of the region has fed the demand for a separate state. A campaign for Bundelkhand state is being spearheaded by actor Raja Bundela who in the past contested the Lok Sabha and assembly elections unsuccessfully.

However, the demand for a separate Bundelkhand state, or for that matter the division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller and more manageable states, has not found its place in the campaign content this time. The demand for creation of separate states with the names of Harit Pradesh (western UP), Poorvanchal (eastern UP), Bundelkhand and Awadh had been raised prior to the 2012 election by the then BSP government headed by Mayawati.

She had, in fact, passed a resolution to this effect in November 2011, a few months before the end of her government's tenure. However, the BSP had lost the election. This time, none of the erstwhile proponents of UP's division has raised this demand in the campaign.

Local leaders in Jhansi and Hamirpur say the demand for a separate state will have no meaning unless the districts in neighbouring MP are also not included in the Bundelkhand state. Since the demand is not so strong in MP, people in Bundelkhand region of UP feel it is better to be a part of a large state. However, they assert that the agitation for a better deal to the chronically backward region would continue.

In this context, it would appear that voters will have to choose between the benefits of the package given by the previous UPA government coupled with the promises made by Akhilesh, and the campaign promises by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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