Taking a swipe at former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal president and union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and Kalyan Singh were responsible for the state's backwardness.
The union minister was speaking at the two-day open session of the state unit of the Rashtriya Lok Dal Wednesday evening. He criticised the caste conferences organised by Mayawati and Mulayam Singh, and said politics in Uttar Pradesh had long been fuelled by caste, crime and cash.
Ajit Singh said the state lacked infrastructural facilities, and security too was a big concern. "How will investors come here? The unemployment rate is very high. There is hardly any land left for redistribution in rural areas," the union minister said.
As for the creation of a new state of Harit Pradesh from Uttar Pradesh, Ajit Singh said the people of western Uttar Pradesh must then be prepared for a long-drawn struggle and for sacrifices, like the people of Telangana.
Singh said his party would contest the next election with the Congress.
Last month, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court banned caste-based political rallies in the state.