BSP chief Mayawati promises statehood, Allahabad HC bench to western UP

LUCKNOW: Choosing the birth anniversary day of her ideologue Dr BR Ambedkar, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati made a major announcement of according statehood to western UP and also establishing a bench of Allahabad High Court in the region if voted to power at centre.

While addressing her a poll rally in Muzaffarnagar, the BSP chief introduced the long-pending ‘Harit Pradesh’ issue to the poll arena yet again. Significantly, it was Dr BR Ambedkar who had proposed the division of UP into three separate states—Western, Central and Eastern—for the better governance.

Even Union Minister and BJP candidate from Muzaffarnagar had also been a votary of statehood to western UP in his personal capacity. In Muzaffarnagar, the BSP chief launched a broadside on archrival Samajwadi Party (SP) saying that the brotherhood and amity was buried in western UP during the rule of SP whereas the BSP rule never witnessed a communal flareup in western UP.

She slammed both Congress and the BJP for having policies favoring the capitalists and big corporate houses. “These parties don’t have Dalit, tribals and deprived in their agenda of development,” she said.

Notably, the BSP is going it alone in the ensuing elections keeping both the ruling and the opposition blocs at equal distance. In Muzaffarnagar, she has fielded Dara Singh Prajapati, against BJP’s Sanjeev Balyan who is seeking the third term from the constituency and SP’s Harendra Mallik, a former MP and a prominent Jat leader.