Om Prakash Rajbhar proposes dividing Uttar Pradesh into four states

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has revived the debate regarding the division of India’s most populous state. Speaking at a public meeting in Ambedkar Nagar, Rajbhar claimed that the division of Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states is “inevitable.”

He proposed that the state be split into four distinct regions: Purvanchal, Madhyanchal, Bundelkhand, and Harit Pradesh. Rajbhar stated that for any future electoral alliance, a non-negotiable condition would be that a leader from the Rajbhar community must serve as the Chief Minister of the proposed Purvanchal state, citing the community’s significant vote share in the eastern belt.

The demand for regional division has been a recurring theme in Uttar Pradesh politics for decades. Proponents often cite the state’s massive geographical size, administrative distance from the capital, and specific regional development needs, such as unemployment and migration in Purvanchal or drought issues in Bundelkhand. A similar formal proposal was passed by the state Assembly in 2011 but failed to receive approval from the Central Government.