Drawing the prime minister's attention to the need for a special economic package for Bundelkhand, Mayawati also pointed out that her demand for a Rs.80,000 crore package for the region had been ignored by the central government.

She also argued that Uttar Pradesh cannot be compared to the northeastern states for which an independent central authority was created. 'Unlike those states, we in Uttar Pradesh have an efficient and fully functional administrative set-up which can take care of its affairs,' she wrote in the letter.

'It would therefore be in the fitness of things for the centre to rise above party lines and release a special package for the development of Bundelkhand, so that the state government could undertake the desired development of the region,' she said.