Cong, BSP may not get offices in UP’s Vidhan Bhawan

Parties winning at least 1% of the assembly seats or a minimum of four get an office room in the assembly complex, says official associated with the UP assembly

LUCKNOW The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which won only two and one seats, respectively, in the recently concluded UP assembly elections, may not get offices in the UP legislature building while the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Nishad Party would get an office room each.

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This is because the Congress and BSP have less than four MLAs now, while the RLD and the Nishad Party have more than four.

As per the convention, parties winning at least 1% of the assembly seats or a minimum of four get an office room in the assembly complex, said an official associated with the UP assembly.

In the 2017 polls, RLD won only one seat and could not get an office on the premises. The Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik), headed by Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias ‘Raja Bhaiya’, which won only two seats, also may not get an office in the complex.

“However, the Speaker can allocate an office to parties with less than four MLAs setting aside the convention. The allocation of office rooms to political parties with less than four MLAs is at the discretion of the Speaker,” said the official. Parties also get staff, if they get an office room on the Vidhan Sabha premises.

The BJP, which won 255 seats, the SP 111, RLD eight, SBSP six, Apna Dal (S) 12 and Nishad Party six are all entitled to office rooms.

Apna Dal, with nine MLAs and SBSP with four, had their offices in the Vidhan Sabha complex in the last session too.