E-Paper
U.P. Legislative Council set to have LoP in Monsoon Session
The bypolls for the seat were notified on June 25, but the SP did not field any candidates, and the BJP candidate Bahoran Lal Maurya was declared elected unopposed on Friday.
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party did not contest the elections for the lone vacant seat in the UP Legislative Council, leading to the BJP candidate being elected unopposed. However, the party will finally name the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the UP Legislative Council in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of the UP Legislature.
The seat fell vacant in February when Samajwadi Party member Swami Prasad Maurya resigned, reducing the SP’s strength in the Upper House of the UP Legislature to eight. The bypolls for the seat were notified on June 25, but the SP did not field any candidates, and the BJP candidate Bahoran Lal Maurya was declared elected unopposed on Friday.
However, in March, during the biennial elections for 13 seats, ten BJP candidates were elected and three SP candidates were elected. This increased the SP’s representation in the Council to ten members. For the Council to have a Leader of Opposition (LoP), the largest opposition party must have at least ten members. “The SP now qualifies to have the post of Leader of Opposition in the house. The party will name the LoP soon,” said Lal Bihari Yadav.
The Council has not had a Leader of Opposition (LoP) since July 2022. The SP had appointed its MLC Lal Bihari Yadav as LoP in May 2022, but after one of its members, Sanjay Lathar, retired in July 2022, the SP’s strength in the Council fell to nine, one short of the minimum number required for the largest opposition party in the Council to have an LoP.
