Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has called for a separate Purvanchal state

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has called for a separate Purvanchal state

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief also claimed his son would become the first chief minister of Purvanchal if it gets statehood.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has called for a separate Purvanchal state and said UP could eventually be divided into four parts.

The minister has been demanding a separate Purvanchal state for years. “My intention is to see the state divided in the coming years. “I will conduct a caste-based census. Once the castes have been counted, there will be no difficulty in deciding how the reservation should be divided,” he quoted the prime minister as saying.

Speaking at his party’s ‘Samajik Samrasta Rally’ (social harmony rally) in Deoria on Sunday (September 20), he said he expects the division of Uttar Pradesh in the coming years. He has again raised the demand ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. He told the prime minister that he wanted the 27% reservation to provide a greater share to communities that have got fewer benefits, according to him.

Uttar Pradesh will be divided into four parts,” he said during his address to people. He then said his demand for a separate Purvanchal state would also open the way for his son to become its chief minister. “The day Purvanchal becomes a separate state, if the first chief minister is to come from a particular community, it will be a Rajbhar, my son, who will become the chief minister,” he said. Rajbhar also referred to a meeting he said he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the reservation issue. He further said PM Modi suggested caste enumeration as a way forward.