UP Minister Revives Four-State Demand, Allies Split Over Division

A fresh demand to carve Uttar Pradesh into four separate states has returned to the political foreground after a state minister claimed that the division would follow a caste census.

Om Prakash Rajbhar, whose Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party is an ally of the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, said on September 20 that the country's most populous state would eventually be split into Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. Speaking at an event in Deoria, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him the exercise could be taken up once castes are counted.

Rajbhar said he raised the matter in the context of a 27 per cent reservation demand, and that the prime minister described his point as justified while noting that some sections were opposed to it. The census is being conducted in two phases and is expected to conclude by February next year.

He went on to say that if a Purvanchal state were formed, its chief minister could come from the Rajbhar community. The minister hails from eastern Uttar Pradesh, the region that would form Purvanchal under the proposed reorganisation.

Allies at odds

The remarks drew an immediate pushback from another BJP partner. Nishad Party chief and Uttar Pradesh minister Sanjay Nishad called the claim misleading and said his party did not support any division. He argued that the state was progressing rapidly across sectors, and that dedicated development funds had already been directed to regions such as Bundelkhand and Purvanchal that required support.

Not everyone in the BJP camp was opposed. Sanjeev Balyan, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and former Union minister, welcomed the idea, saying he had long favoured dividing the state. He argued that separate states would allow for a high court and an AIIMS in each of the four units, bringing speedier justice and medical care to roughly 25 crore residents. A split, he said, would spur development and could make western Uttar Pradesh the country's most prosperous state.

Samajwadi Party rejects the idea

The opposition Samajwadi Party came out firmly against the proposal. Party president and Lok Sabha MP Akhilesh Yadav warned against attempts to divide both the state and the country, telling a press conference in Lucknow that those raising such demands could turn to the country next, and that the nation's size demanded collective effort.

Senior party leader Shivpal Yadav also rejected the move, questioning how many states could be created and arguing that smaller states lose significance and that economies have weakened wherever states were reorganised.

A recurring demand

Uttar Pradesh was last bifurcated in 2000, when Uttarakhand — then called Uttaranchal — was carved out under a BJP-led central government. Since then, calls for another split have surfaced repeatedly.

Ahead of the 2012 assembly elections, then chief minister and BSP president Mayawati pushed the demand and secured the state Assembly's approval for splitting Uttar Pradesh into Avadh Pradesh, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand and Paschim Pradesh. She argued that the state's size — 75 districts, making it India's fourth-largest — was hampering administration and development.

Under her proposal, Purvanchal would take in 22 eastern districts including Gorakhpur, Awadh Pradesh would have 14 districts with Lucknow as its capital, Bundelkhand would comprise seven districts, and Paschim Pradesh would cover 22 districts including Meerut and Ghaziabad.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Congress have also raised the demand in the past. Separate calls have been made for a Bundelkhand state spanning parts of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.