Patna: Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi on Wednesday said the Mithila region should be given statehood over the translation of the Constitution into the Maithili language by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The leader of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council raised the demand when leaders of the ruling alliance thanked the Centre in the House for giving respect to the language. When questioned by reporters outside the Bihar Legislative Council, she said, “Yes, I had said that Mithila should be made a separate state. They (treasury bench members) were busy praising the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the translation of the Constitution, which is fine. But we need something more concrete.”

It is noteworthy that the state government had recently written a letter to the Center requesting to grant classical language status to Maithili, spoken in Mithila of North Bihar and some parts of neighboring Nepal. The demand for the creation of a "Mithilanchal" state has been raised from time to time by cultural activists of this region but this is the first time that a top politician of Bihar, who does not come from Mithila, has spoken in favor of this demand.

Rabri Devi's latest statement is contrary to the stand taken by her husband Lalu Prasad on the division of Bihar, who had said that he would sacrifice his life to not let Jharkhand be carved out of the state, but later agreed under pressure from the ally Congress. At that time, Congress was supporting Rabri Devi's minority government.