Mayawati welcomes creation of Telangana, demands for splitting UP into four parts

A day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) cleared the formation of a separate Telangana state, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday repeated her demand to split Uttar Pradesh into four parts to facilitate better governance.

Mayawati proposed that Uttar Pradesh be split into Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Pashchimanchal.

"The BSP has always been in favour of smaller states for which it had sent a proposal duly passed by the state assembly on November 23, 2011, when it was leading the government for splitting Uttar Pradesh into four states in order to ensure better governance and administration," she told media here today.

Mayawati also supported the demand for separate statehood for Gorkhaland in West Bengal and Vidarbha in Maharashtra.

"It is unfortunate that the Central Government kept it pending since then, but with Telangana becoming a reality, BSP demands that on the principle of one language-one state, the Centre, besides reorganising larger states, should also complete the process of division of Uttar Pradesh into four states, besides (formation of) Gorkhakland and Vidarbha," she said.

She urged the Union Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, who were favouring division of the state, to exert pressure on the Central Government for the process instead of making tall claims.

"Central ministers from Uttar Pradesh should pressurize the Centre for the division of the state," she added.

The BSP supremo further she had created new divisions, zones, districts and tehsils when her party was in power so that better administration could be provided to the people of the state.

The CWC and the UPA Coordination Committee cleared the formation of Telangana on Tuesday evening. They announced Hyderabad as the joint capital for ten years.

The Union Cabinet is likely to meet this week to take a final call on Telangana formation.

According to reports, Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar, who is a member of the Congress Working Committee, has written to party chief Sonia Gandhi to press for the creation of Vidarbha.

Moreover, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has called for the shutdown over a demand for the creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland to be carved out of parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of northern West Bengal.