"The government has passed the proposal by voice vote," Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Mayawati said after the vote Monday by the state assembly. The resolution holds no procedural or legal weight. "The ball is now in Congress' court."

Her idea is to create four new states called Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Paschim Pradesh and Awadh Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, which is home to 200 million and is more populous than Brazil, provides the biggest single bloc of seats in India’s parliament. A majority of India’s prime ministers have come from the state.

Mayawati, a leader of lower caste Dalits, or “untouchables,” pushed through the vote in the state assembly to split the state into four different parts, saying it was simply too big to be governable.

“Development of the state is possible only if it is divided into small states,” Mayawati told reporters.

The vote needs the approval of the national Parliament — a headache for the Congress Party-led federal government that is already dithering about recognizing demands for a new state of Telangana in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Mayawati’s move stole the thunder from the Congress party’s campaign to unseat her in the 2012 state election — a key test for Rahul Gandhi amid speculation he could take over as Congress party leader from his ailing mother, Sonia Gandhi.

Analysts say there is a political calculation as well. The Congress-led central government risks alienating state voters if it rejects the proposal, but granting it gives Mayawati's regional party three more states to potentially govern.

A win for Mayawati in the state election could cement her reputation as a growing national leader representing Dalits, who account for around 16 percent of India’s population.

It could also be a huge blow for the 41-year-old Rahul Gandhi, a possible prime ministerial candidate, before a national election in 2014.

The break-up of the state may be popular among different ethnicities in the state and benefit Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. Analysts say the BSP, which has a base of support among Dalits, could win these new smaller states.

India has 28 states and new states have been created in the past. A decade ago, Jharkhand was carved out of the eastern state of Bihar.

But governments tread cautiously in recognizing new states, wary of ballooning demands from the myriad of different ethnic and linguistic groups in a country of 1.2 billion people.

There is little groundswell within Uttar Pradesh, however, for dividing the state, and opposition parties have come out against the proposal. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's state leader called Mayawati's effort a "political stunt."

"The intention of the government was not clean," Om Prakash Singh said, adding that the assembly rushed through its debate before holding the vote.