LUCKNOW: The demand for the formation of Telangana state and the positive overture of the Central Government towards the issue have come as a godsent opportunity for politicians active in the Bundelkhand region as a dozen outfits there demand a separate state. Some even threaten to take to arms if the demand is not met soon enough.
Bundelkhand Mukthi Morcha president Raja Bundela, who has ignored his Bollywood career to focus on his native region, says the demand for statehood must not be compared with similar demands for several other regions in the country.
Addressing a press conference in Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh on the eve of his fortnight-long march to highlight the demand, he said Bundelkhand was a state till 1948 and had a Chief Minister of its own.
Thirty-five rulers of the princely states of Bundelkhand, Bhaghelkhand had agreed to accede to India with a condition that it would be given statehood with a common executive, legislature and judiciary, he said.
Bundela also threatened to move the Supreme Court against the Union Government for breaching the ‘Bundelkhand statehood treaty,’ saying any further dilly-dallying might make the situation explosive as peoples’ patience in the crisis-ridden region was fast wearing out.
Bundela also dismissed BSP chief and Chief Minister Mayawati’s idea of a separate statehood for Bundelkhand comprising districts within Uttar Pradesh only, saying that the Bundelkhand state must include the adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh also.
He said the Centre’s stance that it could grant statehood for a region only after a State Assembly proposed and passed a resolution was a myth.
“Gujarat was carved out of Maharashtra on the Centre’s initiation. Himachal and Haryana too were carved out of Punjab by the Centre’s initiation.
There was no proposal for Chhattisgarh by its erstwhile state. Uttarakhand, however, was created out of Uttar Pradesh Assembly’s proposal,” he said.