Om Prakash Rajbhar, a minister in the state and head of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, has claimed that India’s Uttar Pradesh will very soon be broken up to create four new states.
He claimed that if a new state of Purvanchal is formed, its first chief minister will be someone from the Rajbhar community itself.
Speaking at a public meeting in Ambedkarnagar, he said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the prime minister had assured him that the work of dividing the state would begin as soon as the caste census was complete.
The four proposed new states are Purvanchal, Madhyanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh. In Rajbhar’s view, the Rajbhar community is most numerous in Purvanchal, so a representative of that community will hold the top position of power there.
Coming ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Rajbhar’s remarks have reheated the state’s long-standing political argument over dividing it. The demand to divide this vast state for administrative convenience has been running for a long time. In 2011, Mayawati’s government passed a proposal in the assembly to divide it four ways, but the central government did not approve it at the time.
At the rally, Rajbhar also stressed that everyone should benefit equally from the 27 percent quota for other backward classes (OBC). He expressed the hope that it would be possible to secure fair rights for all of the backward classes after the caste census.