Demand for Harit Pradesh peters out
Even as organisations demanding separate Bundelkhand and Purvanchal states continue to press for statehood, the demand for Harit Pradesh is gradually dying a slow death.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal, led by Choudhury Ajit Singh, which has been spearheading the campaign for Harit Pradesh since the past two decades, has also put the issue on the backburner and that too, for purely political reasons.
Mr Ajit Singh has also avoided sharing the platform with the newly-formed National Federation for New States, a forum that collectively raises its voice for separate states including Telangana, Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Purvanchal etc.
The demand for Harit Pradesh, it may be recalled, has been strongly opposed by the BJP which is bound to lose it base in the region if Harit Pradesh, that has around 41 per cent Muslim population, is created. BJP leaders have gone on record to say that creation of Harit Pradesh would mean creating a mini-Pakistan in the centre of India.
The RLD expectedly put the demand on the shelf when it contested the last Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP.
The pitch was further queered when former SP leader Mohammed Azam Khan demanded that Harit Pradesh should instead be known as Muslim Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party, in any case, is strongly opposed to any further division of UP, particularly creation of Harit Pradesh.
The Congress, on the other hand, is not believed to be very keen on Harit Pradesh either. The party does not have any leadership in the region and feels that there is already adequate development in the area. In such circumstances, the RLD, which is working towards an alliance with the Congress now, apparently finds it more suitable to ignore the Harit Pradesh issue.
A senior RLD MLA, talking on condition of anonymity, admitted that “it is rather unfortunate but we cannot deny that we have allowed the Harit Pradesh movement to peter out. For years we have fought elections on this issue and now for obvious political reasons, we have put it on the backburner.”
According to party sources, the RLD leadership is more interested in power sharing at the centre.
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