Mayawati's masterstroke

Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister, Ms Mayawati, has time and again shown that she possesses one of the shrewdest political brains in the country. Her latest proposal, to carve up Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states, is a political masterstroke that has unsettled the Opposition in the run-up to the early-2012 polls to the State Assembly. With the exception of the Samajwadi Party – which has opposed the division, given the potentially disastrous break-up of its caste and community-based vote bank – the mainstream national parties (Congress and the BJP) have been forced into an uncomfortable corner. Ideologically and politically, they may not be opposed to the proposal; but openly declaring their support would only give Ms. Mayawati the advantage she seeks in the upcoming elections. By moving ahead, she has managed to shift the focus of the political debate to State formation, and away from the issues of governance, development, law and order, and siphoning of money in welfare schemes.

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