It can be discussed whether the division Mayawati has proposed — the often talked about slicing of the state into Poorvanchal, Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand — is the most viable. But that the division itself will be good for UP is surely beyond debate. The argument for small states is generally a potent one in a democracy — they bring government closer to the people, they shorten and tighten the lines of accountability. In smaller states, sub-regional disparities are more likely to be addressed, and citizens may express more homogeneous preferences, leading to a greater sense of common purpose. Uttar Pradesh must be broken up into smaller pieces for all those reasons — and more. Most of all, UP needs to be divided into smaller states because that may be the only way to shake up its politics that has congealed into inefficient habits and unrepresentative routines. While politics has been turning and changing in several states — even Bihar has recently witnessed a change of both government and governance — it remains the same in UP. In large part this is because political parties have carved out the state into separate fiefs and frozen vote banks. The players’ ability to strike bargains with each other to form the government has been elevated into the primary political skill. Of course, Mayawati broke the trend of fragmented mandates in the last election. She must now harness the BSP’s majority to structurally transform the politics of her state in lasting ways.

Small states are not a panacea and one need only glance at Jharkhand to acknowledge this. But in UP, smaller states could provide a healing touch. In times when the idea and project of the reorganisation of states has lost any whiff of political scandal it was once imbued with, there is no reason why UP must wait.