Lucknow (19.05.2026): The corridors of power in Lucknow and Delhi are buzzing with a familiar, yet potent, restlessness. In the high-stake theatre of Uttar Pradesh politics, where every tweet is a potential manifesto, Supreme Court lawyer and serial PIL litigant Ashwini Upadhyay has thrown a fresh curveball.

His latest digital nudge — a demand for the creation of a separate Bundelkhand state — has arrived at a delicate hour, threatening to recalibrate the political arithmetic just as the state gears up for the 2027 Assembly elections. The "Chanakyas" of the BJP are well aware that the demand for Chhota Rajya (smaller states) has historically been part of their ideological DNA—think Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Mayawati’s BSP, too, once formally moved a resolution to split UP into four parts. However, for CM Yogi Adityanath, the timing is little awkward.

The fact of the matter is that People of Bundelkhand feel that under the shadow of a big state like Uttar Pradesh, regions like Bundelkhand remain underdeveloped. There are seven districts of UP and six of Madhya Pradesh that come under Bundelkhand region.