Now when dust has settled on the election results, I would like to present certain observation from the heartland of Indian politics. This election has been different for certain reasons, some positive and some negative. Lets see how?

Positive Trends:

1. Higher voter turnout: This election saw a turnout of around 60%, which is higher than earlier election. This can be attributed to the anti-incumbency wave against Mayawati, to pro-democracy campaign of Anna Hazare, to certain measures taken by election commission. EC has allowed political parties to carry voters from their home to polling booth in private vehicles. This helped the voting percentage a lot.

2. Developmental agenda: However tickets and other political calculations are still based on caste and religion but a welcome trend is that every party now recognizes that development is a main issue and nobody can neglect it.

3. Young CM: Everybody is excited about the prospects of Akhilesh Yadav transforming UP like Nitish did in Bihar. But in my opinion it is going to be a very tough road ahead for Akhilesh, even if he means what he is saying now. If he doesn’t mean it, then we all know how next five years are going to be like.

4. Violence free election: Kudos to EC on well-managed and violence free election.

Negative Trends:

1. Declining role of national parties: BJP and INC are becoming more and more marginalized in UP and politics of UP is heading in same direction as Tamilnadu, where two regional parties have national parties as their fringe supporters.

2. Short term memory loss of public: Public of UP seemed to forget the tragedies of last SP government. It is better not to say much on decision of janta-janardan.

3. Muslim reservation: However backward muslims groups are already been given reservation under OBC list, political parties are trying to make it an issue out of no-where. Issue would be remembered as the child of this closely fought election. Once the Jinn is out of the bottle, it is hard to contain it.

4. Rise of peace party: seemingly unnoticed event of rise in stature of peace party can be a dangerous trend for future. A party based solely on religious line can’t be good for future.

So all in all, this election has thrown up some solutions and some new problems. Only future will decide whether UP regains its lost honor or we are looking at a new Bihar of India.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Uttar Pradesh (UP) seatwise prepoll prediction by Vikas Kumar : Part 1
2. Uttar Pradesh (UP) seatwise prepoll prediction by Vikas Kumar : Part 2
3. Harit Pradesh or Pashchim Pradesh or Braj Pradesh or Doab

Dear All

I am logging in this site after a long time. I had last given my views / comments (under alias “RAJA”) in this forum, probably on 23rd May, 2009 just after UPA stormed back to power in the Lok sabha elections. A lot has changed since then including my shifting base from Kolkata to Delhi.

Being an ardent supporter of BJP (right from College days), I had allowed my heart to rule my head and thus a heavy dose of bias entered my analysis / predictions for 2009 Lok Sabha polls. I had initially predicted 120-125 seats for BJP and 165-170 for NDA (after Phase-I of the polls), which can be checked under “Comments (on 17.04.2009)” against topic “9 northern states prepoll prediction by raja,” though for individual States it went off mark. I then allowed my “BJP bias” to completely rule over me and I ended up gaving NDA 240+ seats, in the analysis of subsequent phases posted by me in this forum for Lok Sabha Polls 2009.

As a Sales head of my company, I and my subordinates have been travelling across Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during the past 6 months as per the demands of our job. Market research forms a big component of my responsibilities. We have been meeting a lot of people (panchayat leaders, local groups etc), including rural and semi urban areas. An avid lover of Indian Politics, I happen to invariably discuss politics / elections with these people. This time I did not allow any bias to enter my analysis (till now).

A lot has been mentioned in media regarding increased polling % like enlightment of voters, youth interest in voting, Anna effect etc etc. But the main 2 factors have not been mentioned anywhere. They are

1) Cleaning up of voter list by CEC : CEC has done a commendable job in this regard. Around 8-9% list has been pruned, which were mainly bogus, dead, absentee voters. As a result the overall voter strength as compared to 2007 actually got reduced in 2012. Thus even though there was a 5-6% increased in actual voter turnout, the overall reduced voter strength resulted in an increase in polling from 46-48% to 61-62%.

2) Weather : The last time UP polls was held in Winter season was way back in 1998 (Lok Sabha), when the polling was around 57%, which was really high as per UP standards. Last 2 polls in UP (Lok sabha 2009 & Vidhan sabha 2007) were held during peak summer resulting in lower turnout. 1999 Lok sabha polls were also held during September, 1999 and 56% polling was registered, which was also quite high.

Only after this comes the Anna effect, increased participation by middle class etc. But it is a fact that % polling in Urban centres went up dramatically in the 2 phases as compared to earlier years. Bulk of this was first time middle class voters in the age group 18-23 and women. Hence this segment is very important for all parties.

Before we get to my projections for UP-2012, I would just give the breakup of % votes polled in last few Assembly elections in UP as well analyse the voting patterns of the main groups i.e Upper castes – OBC/MBC – Dalits – Minorities.

Year           General           SC

1996           56.1%             54.23%

2002           53.89%          53.48%

2007           46.42%           44.22%

(Eg. In 1996, out of registered 100 SC voters, 54.23 voters cast their franchise in the elections)

Actual break up of Upper castes, OBC/MBC and Minority votes is not available with anyone including Election commission and is included under “General”.

From the figure, it is clear that the media reports on “a surge of dalit voting during 2007” were actually a myth. What had actually happened was that BSP had, over a period of time, progressively increased its share amongst Dalit voters. As per unconfirmed reports, BSP had managed to get 85% of the Dalit votes in 2007, which turned out to be 17.5% of popular vote. The remaining 13% was mainly Urban upper caste votes who were tired with the SP regime and minority votes (in pockets). The 17.5% Dalit votes has become BSP committed voters.

SC/ST voters are very loyal unlike Upper caste / OBC voters. Hence once they decide to align with a particular party, it is very difficult to get them out even if anti incumbency is at play. This is why INC (the original preference of Dalit votes) is unable to make a dent in BSP vote bank in UP. This is also the reason why INC-NCP alliance returns to power in Maharashtra election after election, even though its governance is miserable. In Chattisgarh and Orissa, where BJP & BJD have respectively managed to attract the SC/ST voters, INC is losing election after election in these 2 states.

If we see the history of UP politics, the scene was mostly dominated by Upper castes right from Panchayat level. The first churning started in 1990 after Mandal commission and there after the Ram temple movement. OBC leaders like Mulayam Yadav, Kalyan Singh, Govindacharya, Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Uma Bharti came to the fore front. This also decimated the INC from the Hindi heart land as the party failed to read the change and did not adapt to the changing environment. The entire OBC block (45% of UP electorate) shifted to BJP in 1991 and to some extent SP post 1993. Along with this INC lost the Dalit votes as well as Upper caste votes.

A chunk of OBC voters stuck to BJP post 2002. During the disastrous BJP-BSP alliance in 2002-03, these voters deserted the BJP in droves to SP. By 2004, BJP became a party of “nobody” like the INC. It may be noted that post Mandalisation, the biggest rivals of Dalits in UP are the OBC voters and not Upper castes and as such they detest BSP rule.

Though INC lost the state in 1989, it was more of anti-incumbency. Janata Dal – CPI alliance had won the polls with 31.26% of popular vote against INC share of 27.7%, i.e a difference of only 3.5% in a bi-polar contest. INC vote share further slipped to 17.3% in 1991, 15.08% in 1993 and 8.35% in 1996.

Being at the fore front in UP politics, upper castes do not accept any dilution of their dominance in the State. Hence, they always “try to go along with the winner” so that their share in the power center do not reduce. This explains why the Upper castes allied with the BJP in 90s, gradually shifted to SP in post 2002 polls and then to BSP in 2007. This was in spite of BJP giving them maximum representation.

Muslims have traditionally voted for INC till 1989. There after they had resorted to strategic voting to keep BJP at bay. Bulk of these votes has been cornered by SP post-1992 Babri Masjid demolition. It is estimated that 60-75% of minority voters have gone to SP and the rest to BSP / INC during 1990s and early 2000s. In 2007, although there was media hype regarding Muslims voting en bloc for BSP, in reality it was not true. BSP got minority votes only in pockets. Bulk of minorities’ votes continued to vote for SP. This is evident from the fact that SP vote share remained same in 2002 as well as 2007 (25.4%), even though there was massive anti incumbency against the Mulayam regime. What had happened in 2007 was that the upper caste and urban votes shifted a big way to BSP from BJP, resulting in BSP getting a landslide victory. BJP vote share plummeted from 21.02% in 2002 to 16.97% in 2007.

During 1991, even though Muslims resorted to strategic voting, the deadly Upper caste – Non Yadav OBC combination knitted by BJP through Rath Yatra, was next to impossible to beat. This remained the mainstay of BJP till 1999 when Kalyan Singh was unceremoniously removed.

Coming to 45% OBC votes in UP; 10% are Yadavs, 8% Kurmis. The remaining 27% are Lodhs and MBCs. Yadavs and around 50% Kurmi voters from a solid vote bank for SP and give them a committed 14% vote overall. Post 2003, when SP took over power from the failed BJP-BSP experiment, MBC votes generally split among SP & BJP with SP getting a lion’s share. This explained why SP got 38 seats from UP in 2004 Lok Sabha polls and BJP ended up with only 10.

Off late, a feeling has crept amongst MBCs that Yadavs / Kurmis have cornered most of the OBC benefits and they have got a raw deal. This is particularly after the social engineering with MBC done by Nitish Kumar in Bihar post 2005. Thus a large number of MBC voters aligned with the INC during 2009, especially in Awadh and Purvachal regions as they felt that both BJP & SP were mostly working for “forward” OBCs.

SP alliance with Kalyan Singh had back fired totally for the party and Muslims voted for INC in large numbers. Varun Gandhi’s famous hate speech also pushed Muslims to the INC as they did not want a BJP led Government at the Centre. Voting for SP would only waste their franchise as SP was not in a position to form a Government at the Centre. In addition to this, INC smartly gave tickets to lot of new faces like RPN Singh, Pradip Jain, Kamal Kishore, Vinay Pandey, Anu Tandon, Arun Tiwari, Azharuddin etc etc. This gave the urban electorate a breath of fresh air since most of these candidates were young, untested and not having any baggage of anti incumbency. This explains why INC stunned all poll pundits by winning 21 seats in UP. However, their performance would be put to test in 2014 Lok Sabha polls as anti incumbency has started brewing against them. In stark contrast, BJP re-nominated their old candidates resulting in losses.

A big advantage with the INC is that its voters are in pockets unlike BSP and SP. Hence with 18.7% votes, it managed to upstage BSP during 2009 with 21 seats and was leading in 94 assembly segments. BSP, with its core vote share spread out across the state, managed only 20 LS seats with a 27.4% share.

The party wise breakup for Lok Sabha 2009 is given below.

Vote          share         Seats

SP               23.3%        23

BSP             27.4%       20

INC            18.3%         21

BJP            17.5%         10

RLD            3.3%           5

Now I come to my observations in the current scenario.

Though I am against the Nehru – Gandhi legacy, I am forced to accept the massive ground work carried out single handedly by Rahul Gandhi in the State especially through Youth INC leaders. Though his visits to colleges / universities have been pooh-poohed upon by all, the truth is that it has really brought about an impact at the ground level. I have talked to lot of young people and found that Urban middle class youth in UP, cutting all sections of society, are looking up to Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. Being in the age group 18-23, they have not experienced the earlier INC regimes (which have destroyed UP) and feel that INC should be given a chance in the State. Though Akhilesh Yadav is also trying to attract youth in the State, Rahul Gandhi is somewhat ahead in urban centres. The only catch is that INC does not have any Chief Ministerial candidate.

I hate to say that BJP has totally failed to attract the new voters and the youth feel that BJP is a spent force and party without future with leaders more interested in fighting each other. More over Kushwaha episode has also created a negative impact in this segment of voters.

Announcement of 4.5% quota for minorities has not helped INC as expected. Minorities find SP more effective to check BJP rise (if any) in UP during Assembly polls. But in some pockets, there is a definite split of minority votes, which is helping BSP. Here also BJP is unable to take advantage of the split in minority votes.

Some media reports / social blogs have indicated that 4.5% minority quota announcement by the Centre has back fired and there is a consolidation in favour of BJP. I have visited around 23 districts of UP during the past 2 months and have found that there is absolutely no truth in this statement. I have talked on this issue to a few MBC leaders who have said that such reservation would not affect MBCs as most of the benefits are cornered by “forward” OBCs (Yadavs, Kurmis etc) and MBCs anyhow get a raw deal. Yadavs are firmly behind SP this time also. In fact this is the reason why INC has started re-emphasizing the 4.5% minority quota after giving it a brief earlier. The first 2 phases have indicated that there is absolutely no effect consolidation of OBC votes towards BJP.

Upper castes (especially Brahmins) are as usual “going along with the wind” and are favoring mostly INC as they feel sooner or later it would be a INC led Government in UP. A substantial chunk of upper castes are also going voting for SP, especially in rural areas, which is negating its loss of minority votes, which INC is eating up. As a result vote share of SP is not rising dramatically like it did for BSP in 2007. This observation was also quite surprising.

Forget about attracting, BJP has failed terribly in holding onto its traditional upper caste vote bank. This fact has also been echoed by Chakresh ji through his comments on 04.02.2012 against the topic “UP prepoll prediction for 2012 assembly election”.

Even though there is a marked anti incumbency against BSP in the State, Dalits are firmly behind Mayawati as they do not want SP at any cost. Mayawati is losing upper caste votes heavily. As a result as there shall be a drastic reduction in BSP vote share. Being a shrewd politician Mayawati is now trying very hard in ensuring higher turnouts by Dalits so that she can reduce her losses.

One of the biggest mistakes of BJP, which have incidentally turned off voters, is that right from beginning its target was to somehow pip INC for the 3rd position instead of going for a victory in UP. I have talked to quite a few BJP lower rung leaders, who have mentioned that 3rd spot is more important at this stage with around 75-80 seats. In fact BJP is seriously campaigning in only 250-260 seats out of 403!

While holding on to its 2009 performances in Awadh and Purvachal (North & West) regions, INC in alliance with RLD is making impressive gains in Western UP. However INC is losing in Bundelkhand where SP and to some extent BJP is making gains. Additionally Azharuddin has been shown thumbs down in Moradabad with INC losing from here. The most surprising aspect of my findings is that the in this region, BSP upper caste and urban votes are getting shifted to INC/RLD. As a result INC/RLD alliance is winning these seats and SP is winning by default in the places where INC/RLD candidate is weak.

About BJP; the least said, the better. They are losing even in their traditional urban stronghold areas like Ghaziabad, Meerut, Mathura, Agra, Lucknow and Varanasi. However Uma Bharati’s campaigning is helping BJP to get an additional seat or two in Bundelkhand. INC is not doing well in this region including Jhansi.

IN OTHER WORDS, BJP IS DECLINING RAPIDLY ACROSS THE STATE AND ACROSS ALL SECTIONS. Added to this, important leaders like Varun & Menaka Gandhi, M.M Joshi, Adityanath are campaigning only in their respective constituencies. Though Uma Bharti is pulling crowds, it is unlikely that they would translate into votes. Many BJP lower rung leaders whom I have talked to are totally demoralized with the party and they fear that a large chunk may switch loyalties to other parties if BJP performs badly. They mostly blame their top leadership (Central & State) for the sorry state of affairs. Almost everyone feels that only a towering figure like Narendra Modi can lift the party from the morass.

Finally my assessment (with a pinch of salt) with regard to 2012 UP polls is under :

Vote share (2007)           % +/- swing             Seats (2012)

SP                       25.43%                      (+) 0.5 to 1.0%         170-175

BSP                    30.43%                      (-) 5.0 to 5.5%          90-100

INC/RLD         12.31%*                     (+) 8.0 to 8.5%         100-105

BJP                    16.97%                       (-) 4.0 to 4.5%           30 – 35

* INC+RLD (INC – 8.61%, RLD – 3.7%)

One thing is very sure. INC is on the rise across UP, especially amongst the Brahmin-Muslim-MBC vote bank. In fact, if the same momentum continues in 2014, INC may end up winning 35+ seats from UP alone.

- Shiladitya Bose.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Pre-poll prediction after phase 3 by Shiladitya Bose
2. Pre-poll prediction by Arun Nehru and case of possible post poll alliances
3. UP prepoll prediction for 2012 assembly election

Really, sometime I laugh when people ask me, what are the main election issues in Uttar Pradesh election. There are long boring debates on TV channels about issues and trends. These things might have an effect on urban educated middle class, but THEY DO NOT VOTE. So, what really decides results of election? Let us have a closer understanding how politics works in rural areas.

In todays’ time and in a state as backward as UP, everybody has one problem or other with the system. People don’t really care if that problem belong to the whole community, ie. electricity, road, unemployment. But an individual voter is very very concerned about his personal problems where he might need help of some political leader, ie. avoiding problems with police, getting arms licence, some source in government office etc. So everybody tries to form a relation with one or two local leaders. Now who will help you in such illegal acts? Someone who is your own caste, from your own village, somehow related to you. So this process leads to local blocks of influence of a local leader. He gets work done, so people are with him.

Now, every district has 20-30 such influential leaders or families who can get your work done. They command their own blocks of influence. Their supporters will vote for them in spite of their political party. Now these 20-30 people fight for tickets from 4-5 major parties so that they can gain voters loyal to that particular party. The percentage of voters loyal to party is very low in UP, may be 40% in urban areas but less than 20% in rural areas. These leaders anticipate mood of neutral voters (say 20%) and try to align themselves with that mood. So the stocks of ticket from party A to B keep going up and down in every election. These local leaders change loyalties in every election based on opportunity and local equations. So the job of all major political parties is to attract these influential leaders to its fold.

So, the issues like corruption/poverty/unemployment are only talking points, they do not affect large number of people’s choice on voting machine. However these issues do change mind of 10-15% concerned citizens, but alas they don’t vote in large numbers.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Happy new year but same old politics in India
2. Increasing caste divide in rural India
3. 15 step guide for you to make a difference in politics

Ground is prepared, crowd is in full enthu, umpires have given the signal, now everybody is waiting for the game to be started. Parties have announced most of their warriors for this mahabharat. For some it is the game of life and death, for some it is about a career, on the other hand some are just trying to reclaim their lost inheritence. Telling right from wrong is the most difficult part in this mahabharat and the only difference from blood thirstyness of kurukshetra and Uttar Pradesh election is that here we have four contenders of power instead of two and all of them fancy their chances. Let us examine the claims and ground reality of UP, which is going to polls next month.

If anybody who thinks that there is any other issue which is going to play an important role in this election than caste, he is certainly day-dreaming. However some possible issues that can swing a small percentage of population from one side to other are as followed

1. Corruption has created a general apathy towards BSP and INC.

2. Land aquisition issue has created a sense support for INC and RLD in western UP.

3. Muslims are again coming back to the fold of SP after return of Azam Khan.

4. Upper castes are again coming back to BJP and some are looking at INC as alternative.

5. The trick of division of UP can play in favour of BSP in bundelkhand and poorvanchal.

6. BSP is the best prepared and best organised party at grass-root level at the moment.

7. SP is fighting with the problem of leadership vacuum.

8. Hit and run strategy of Rahul Gandhi has created a lot of interest, but mind it, it is not vote.

9. BJP is still in bewilderment and not able to understand what to do.

10. Public is still not able to rise above caste politics, development is almost a non-issue.

In this way, if we summarize the situation in one line, “It is the race where no contender has any idea about how to win, all the injured and somehow race is changing into struggle about not to finish last”. Here is the analysis and prediction about result. Please understand that these are just predictions, and as we know, they never come true. So just enjoy, debate and have fun. Read the caste-wise analysis of current trend in UP here

Take a look at these related posts:

1. UP assembly pre-poll prediction by Shiladitya Bose
2. In UP, you don’t cast your vote but vote your caste – maya is coming back in 2012
3. India Election 2009 pre-poll prediction : Introduction

In history of every nation, there comes a time when it needs just a push to get launched on the path of greatness. We have seen great leaders who have provided that extra push on such crucial junctures in the history of India. Today as we say hello to a new year, a sense of gloom persists in political and economic sphere of this great nation.

Government of the day has lost its credibility and it has touched new lows in corruption and dictatorial attitude. However the biggest worry of current political scenario is not a knee jerk government but it is the vacuum in the opposition benches. No party has any clue about how to take out nation from this abyss. Everybody is busy playing their own little game, so that they have lost the sight of larger issues. Be it congress or BJP or left parties, leaders are focusing just on the petty politics. Nobody is ready to take responsibility of the future. On one hand there is a naive prince, who got everything in silver spoon, but he is not even able to hold the spoon. On the other hand we have a veteran leader, whose greed has surpassed all the realms of logic, he is not even ready to retire at the age of 85. Left parties are hopelessly trying to find the manifesto of communism again which they have lost in streets of Singur. It is obviously day-dreaming to expect anything worthwhile from regional parties. The movement of decade, in the white knight-ship of an old gandhian triggered the sense of euphoria in nation, specially rising middle classes, but it also failed due to tactlessness and foolish egoistic nature of its leadership.

In last 20 years situation has never became so alarming that the nation seems lost. Economic sphere is also not providing any good news. The biggest worry is that bureaucracy and judiciary is hiding in their own cocoon. The torture of indecisive government and lack of leadership at top reminded me of a famous statement of ex-PM Narsimha Rao, “Not taking a decision is also a decision”. Well that decision of not taking any decision is dragging country atleast 25 years back, forget about being a super-power. When the country is governed by a blind PM and reigns are in the hand of people who are not responsible for anything, the jackal herd is looting this country.

So, happy new year, my dear friends. We celebrate, we mourn, we wait for that leader to arrive, who will have the ability and above all a heart to guide the nation. To my dear leaders I can only say, O dumb political class, if you can just win over your greed and self-centeredness, this nation will make you king of its heart and soul. This is a country of sunflowers, it always waits for the sun to rise, then it worships him, until then it waits in darkness.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. How politics really works in rural India

Recent public debate about relation between CBI and proposed body of lokpal has raised a question of investigative agency’s autonomy. In Indian society when something goes wrong, a loot, a murder, a corruption scandal, we are very quick to blame the police department and other investigative agencies for this lapse. There is nobody who would deny that police is one of the most corrupt public institutions in India. But is that the whole story? Are the police officer’s inefficiency and corruption something they are born with or something systemic? Let us examine this issue.

If we want to understand the working of any public office, we must understand first that a sound balance between autonomy and accountability (legal responsibility) is a must for proper working of any such office. Police and CBI are no exception to this rule. If we give more autonomy than responsibility it can become inefficient and dictatorial. So the proper control over police and CBI is a must. That is why our constitution gave the control of police in hands of elected representatives.

But here the script went wrong. In a democracy, and that too a nascent democracy like India, politicians and even general public is more interested in personal advancement on the expanse of society as a whole. So whenever a political party comes to power, it uses the police and CBI to harass opponent and dissolve cases against itself. We should not become too critical of political parties because it is more or less guaranteed that if such power is given to you sir, you will not hesitate to use it for personal gains.

In this way, key lies in giving proper autonomy to the investigative agencies. Politicians and judiciary should not have too much of a say in day to day matters of police/CBI such as promotion, transfer etc. Politics should be confined to the policy making about police. A model police act was proposed by SC in Prakash Singh vs Union of India case. If implemented it can solve all the major problems of police. Directives in a nutshell are:

1. Constitute a State Security Commission (SSC) to ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police; lay down broad policy guideline; and evaluate the performance of the state police.

2. Ensure that the director general of police is appointed through a merit-based transparent process and secure a minimum tenure of two years.

3. Ensure that other police officers on operational duties (including superintendents of police in-charge of a district and station house officers in-charge of a police station) are also provided a minimum tenure of two years.

4. Separate the investigation and law and order functions of the police.

5. Set up a Police Establishment Board (PEB) to decide transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters of police officers of and below the rank of deputy superintendent of police and make recommendations on postings and transfers above the rank of deputy superintendent of police.

6. Set up a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) at state level to inquire into public complaints against police officers of and above the rank of deputy superintendent of police in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt, or rape in custody and at district levels to inquire into public complaints against the personnel below the rank of deputy superintendent of police in cases of serious misconduct.

7. Set up a National Security Commission (NSC) at the union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of chiefs of the central police organizations (CPO) and CBI with a minimum tenure of two years.

But in my opinion SC was just kidding. How can we expect political parties, who use police as their private militia, to implement such act? Nobody gives up his power just because it is better for nation. It is just a hope that someday another anna, another gandhi will come who can create a public outcry and, more importantly, has political acumen to get such act passed from parliament. Till then, we are either too weak to say something or too rich to care about bribe or too indifferent to be a citizen.

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Regions included: Current Haryana, Hanumangarh (Rajsthan)

Population (2011): 2.7 crores

Area: 50000 sq KM

Note: Haryanvi culture extend to some part of current Rajsthan also. Chandigarh should be returned to Punjab as par Rajiv-Longawala accord. Haryana should develop a new capital.

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1. Greater Jharkhand: proposed state
2. Bhojpur: proposed state
3. Malwa: proposed state

Regions included: Gwalior, Rewa, Sagar, Chambal, Shahdol & half Jabalpur divisions of MP and Jhansi, Chitrakoot divisions & Sonbhadra district of UP

Population (2011): 5 crores

Area: 200000 sq KM

Note: There is a long standing demand for Bundelkhand state but it has been turned down on the basis of lack of resources in the Bundelkhand region. If we include the Baghelkhand region in this proposed state than it can form a viable state. Even two separate states of Bundelkhand (Gwalior, Sagar, Chambal, Jhansi, Chitrakoot divisions) and Baghelkhand can be formed.

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1. Harit Pradesh or Pashchim Pradesh or Braj Pradesh or Doab
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Regions included: Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Narmadapuram divisions of MP

Population (2011): 3.5 crores

Area: 80000 sq KM

Note: Indore as capital city, malwa has been a very important historic region of cetral India. The logic-less state of Madhya Pradesh should be done away with. This area has a great potential for fast economic growth if proper policies are made specifically for this region.

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1. Magadh: proposed state
2. Bundelkhand or vindhya pradesh: proposed state
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Regions included: Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Nagaur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jalor, Sirohi, Pali districts of Rajasthan

Population (2011): 2 crores

Area: 120000 sq KM

Note: Thar desert situated west of Arawalis is home to a sparse population and a underdeveloped economy. Separate state can provide focused approach and it can become home to a new green revolution.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Bundelkhand or vindhya pradesh: proposed state
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