Before the assembly elections of 2024, a new party has entered the political arena of Uttar Pradesh. Former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Mr. Sulkhan Singh has announced the formation of his party, the ‘Bundelkhand Loktantrik Party’. The main goal of this party is to get statehood for the Bundelkhand region.
A former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1980 batch, Mr. Singh was the first DGP in the Yogi 1.0 government. The retired officer, who hails from Banda district in UP’s Bundelkhand region, was given a three-month extension of service by the Ministry of Home Affairs a day before he was set to retire on 30 September, 2017. In his three decade-long career, he served as the Director General of Training Directorate, Additional Director General (ADG) (Police Headquarters) in Allahabad, Inspector General (IG) of Lucknow Zone, Deputy Inspector General of Lucknow, Allahabad and Mirzapur ranges, and as District Senior Senior Superintendent of Police/Superintendent of Police (SSP/SP) of Agra, Allahabad, Saharanpur, and Rampur districts.
His party’s main demand is a separate state for the Bundelkhand region by combining 15 districts – seven of which fall in UP and eight in Madhya Pradesh. He believes that Bundelkhand is a vast region but it has never really been given the kind of budgetary allocation it requires.