Uttar Pradesh to be divided into three parts?
A message claiming that Uttar Pradesh will be bifurcated into three states is doing the rounds on the internet. It claims that the government has mooted a proposal to divide the country's most populous state into 3 parts -- Uttar Pradesh, Purvanchal and Bundelkhand.
The viral message claims that Lucknow will be the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, Gorakhpur will serve as the capital of Purvanchal and Prayagraj will be made the capital of Bundelkhand state. It even says that the bifurcation will be completed before the next year's Assembly elections. While Poorvanchal will have 23 districts, Bundelkhand and Uttar Pradesh will have 17 and 20 districts, respectively, according to the viral message.
However, the Yogi Adityanath government has denied bringing any such proposal. The government categorically rejected the viral and appealed to the people not to heed such messages on social media sites.
The information department of the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday clarified that this is just a rumour and that there is no such proposal in place to divide the state.
"News of division of the state is fake and holds no ground," Sidharth Nath Singh, UP Cabinet minister and spokesperson, had said on Friday.
Notably, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had in January this year rejected mooting any plan to divide the state, saying his "government believes in uniting and not dividing".
Earlier in 2011, then BSP government had passed a proposal to split the state into four parts – Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. Mayawati was the Chief Minister at that time.
