Union Minister of State Sanjeev Balyan, the BJP's Muzaffarnagar MP, has created a stir in Uttar Pradesh politics by calling for the state's division to enable the creation of west UP as a separate state with Meerut as its capital. Addressing an “International Jat Parliament” held in Meerut last Sunday, Balyan made this demand, claiming that west UP with a population of over eight crore would be “best and most prosperous state” in the country. Balyan's demand was rejected within hours by the BJP's firebrand and former Sardhana MLA Sangeet Singh Som, who said the formation of west UP state would mean the creation of a “mini Pakistan”. Som said the population of a particular community was constantly increasing, claiming that its population was around 80 per cent in several urban local bodies like Nagar Palika Parishads and Nagar Panchayats. “Do you want Hindus to become minority there?” Som asked while speaking to media Tuesday and added that nobody from west UP wanted it to be a separate state. Balyan was not available for his response, but several BJP leaders in west UP dismissed his demand as just “an attempt in his personal capacity to appease Jat voters” ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Balyan had won from Muzaffarnagar with a narrow margin of 6,526 votes against RLD's Ajit Singh. Then RLD had an alliance with SP and BSP. Performance of SP-RLD alliance in west UP was impressive in 2022 Assembly polls. BJP also lost Khatauli seat – part of Muzaffarnagar parliamentary seat – to RLD in a bypoll last year. These results indicate that Balyan needs to work more among Jats ahead of 2024 polls,” said a BJP leader from the region. The leader said that in urban local body polls held earlier this year, the BJP and the RLD had won one each of the two Nagar Palika Parishad chairperson seats in the region. In the Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats, the BJP drew a blank as Independent candidates won five seats with the SP, RLD and AAP winning one each. Another BJP leader from west UP said that Balyan's remark has not evoked “any positive response” from the public in the region. “For a long time no one is talking about a separate state. Jats and Muslims are going to play a key role in the 2024 Lok Saha polls here,” he said. West UP comprises 18 districts, including districts such as Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Bijnore, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Aligarh, Hathras, Agra and Moradabad, which account for significant Jat populations. The community has relatively smaller numerical presence in four districts of the region, which include Rampur, Amroha, Saharanpur and Gautam Budh Nagar. The Jat community has influence in a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies and about 40 Assembly seats across west UP. They are estimated to make up 10-15 per cent of the population in the 17 districts, but are vocal as well as socially dominant with the capacity to build up a political atmosphere. The BJP suffered a minor setback in west UP at the hands of the SP-BSP alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, even as it won 12 of the region's 19 parliamentary seats. Of the remaining seven seats, the BSP won four and the SP won three. The BJP later wrested the Rampur seat from the SP in a bypoll held last year. West UP accounts for 95 of the state's total 403 Assembly seats. In the 2017 Assembly polls, when the incumbent SP had a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, the former could win just 15 seats and the Congress two seats with the BJP sweeping the region by bagging 74 seats. The BSP had then won three seats and the RLD only one seat. Jats had largely voted for the BJP, which stormed to power by clinching the polls. In the 2022 polls, when the SP fought in western UP in alliance with the RLD, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party bagged 24 seats in the region while the latter won 8 seats. The BJP won 63 seats – 11 seats less than its 2017 tally – whereas the BSP failed to win any seat. In the Assembly bypolls since then, the RLD wrested the Khatauli seat from the BJP, while the BJP's ally Apna Dal (S) won Suar defeating the SP. The demand for carving out west UP as a separate state had been raised by the RLD for many years. The RLD's national general secretary Trilok Tyagi said, “Ajit Singh ji (former party chief and Union minister, who passed away in 2021) ran the statehood movement for 20 years. Making west UP a separate state is RLD's demand for a long time. But the BJP minister (Balyan) is now doing drama on this issue for the Jat votes. BJP can see that it is going to lose election because RLD's influence is increasing in the region under the leadership of Jayant Chaudhary (party chief and Ajit Singh's son).” Tyagi said Balyan should raise the demand in the Lok Sabha in his capacity as a Union minister and get it passed if he is really concerned about it. Ahead of the 2012 UP Assembly polls, the BSP government had in November 2011 got a resolution – on splitting UP into four separate states, Purvanchal, Paschim Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Awadh Pradesh – passed in the Assembly by a voice vote. BSP supremo and then CM, Mayawati, had moved the resolution, saying it will be forwarded to the Centre.
