The Padayatra would take him 450 km from Allahabad to Gorakhpur Dec. 1-31. He wants UP, which has a population of 190 million, to be divided into Bundelkhand, Poorvanchal and Paschimanchal.
"I'm working hard for the partition of UP despite ill health (he recently received a kidney donated by his Keralite driver). UP is bigger than the UK and Germany (in terms of population) and it's difficult for such a big state to prosper," he told reporters here Thursday." Chief Minister Mayawati had also favored this.
One of the founding leaders of SP led by former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Singh was expelled from the party by his mentor and he later floated Rashtriya Lok Manch which did not make much impact in UP politics dominated by Yadav and Mayawati.
"My future in politics is related to the future of UP. I'm working hard for the state's future. You can see for your self the way smaller states like Uttarakhand and Jarkhand prospered after partition," said Singh, who was here to promote his Malayalam film Bombay Mittai, flanked by his costars Dimple Kapadia and Jayaprada.
He said anybody supporting the cause of small states including leaders from Telangana, Vidarbha and Gorkhaland were welcome to join the struggle. Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh who had been rooting for "Harit Pradesh" was also invited.
The SP had the other day revoked the expulsion of his arch foe, prominent Muslim leader Azam Khan, who had questioned Jayaprada's growing clout in the party. Asked about it, he recited a few couplets of Kabeer and Rabinbranath Tagore to say that the SP is a closed chapter for him.
"I never regret my days in politics. I don't believe in looking back either. I am here to look forward," he said adding his future would depend on the work he was doing currently which would be the edifice for the future of UP. "Lohia had never encouraged nepotism but his followers are doing so and appointing family members to party posts."
Singh, who as SP general secretary played a key role in bailing out the previous the UPA regime when the left withdrew support to it on nuclear issue, was all praise for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
He said he supported his nuclear policy after consulting former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and he did it only in national interest and not for any reciprocity. And if he receives a call to rejoin the SP, he would behave like a "deaf and dumb person."
"I'm not expecting any call from anyone. Even if I get one, I would behave like a deaf and dumb person," he said. "Politics is not a test tube. In politics, things just happen and nothing is impossible in politics." On Ayodhya title suits, he expressed satisfaction over both Hindus and Muslims exercising restraint in the aftermath of the judgment. He said his emotions and beliefs were attached with Ayodhya and Lord Ram but flayed those who "are selling Lord Rama for their ulterior motives."
