Lucknow: Opening a new front against the
Congress, UP Chief Minister Mayawati today created a new
district carved out of Amethi-- Rahul Gandhi`s Lok Sabha
constituency-- and named it after dalit icon Chhatrapati
Shahuji Maharaj.
"The state cabinet in its meeting chaired by Chief
Minister Mayawati has decided to restore district status to
Chattrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. It also decided to rename
Kanpur Dehat as Ramabai Nagar district," an official spokesman
said here.
With this, Mayawati has resurrected her 2002 decision
to carve out the new district from some parts of Sultanpur and
Rae Bareli districts that was taken during her third stint as
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The new district was scrapped
during the Samajwadi Party`s regime which issued a
notification in this regard on November 21, 2003.
Spread over 3,070 sq km area, the new district will
have five tehsils -- Amethi, Gauriganj, Musafirkhana of
Sultanpur district and Salon and Tiloi of Rae Bareli district,
16 development blocks and 17 police stations, the spokesman
said.
All these tehsils fall within the Amethi parliamentary
constituency, represented by Rahul Gandhi who had drawn
Mayawati`s ire for his campaign to woo the dalits in the
state.
The Congress, however, said such steps will not affect
the links between Amethi and Nehru-Gandhi family.
"Notwithstanding what the UP government does, Amethi
was, it is and will always remain intrinsically connected to
the contributions of the Nehru-Gandhi family," party spokesman
Manish Tewari told reporters in Delhi.
Amethi will always remain connected to Nehru-Gandhis: Cong
Dubbing the move of the Uttar
Pradesh Government to create a new district carved out of
Rahul Gandhi`s constituency as "unacceptable", Congress today
said Amethi will always remain intrinsically connected to the
Nehru-Gandhi family.
"Kar diya, to apna bhi naam badal diya hota (while
changing the name of Amethi, they should have changed their
name also)," Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in
a sarcastic manner.
He said some names in the country were symbolic "and
Amethi is one of them."
Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said notwithstanding
what the UP government does, "Amethi was, it is and will
always remain intrinsically connected to the contributions of
the Nehru-Gandhi family."
-PTI
