UP assembly session exposes cracks in Oppn ranks
The Uttar Pradesh opposition’s move to boycott the 36-hour special session of the state assembly suffered a major setback as six ‘opposition’ MLAs turned up at the session and also heaped praise on chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
After winning over Congress MLA from Rae Bareli Aditi Singh and ensuring participation of Samajwadi Party and BSP rebels Nitin Agarwal and Anil Singh, respectively, in the state assembly on Wednesday, the Yogi government got support of three more ‘opposition’ legislators, who turned up to take part in the special session on Thursday.
In addition to the six ‘opposition’ MLAs, BSP MLC Brajesh Singh ‘Prinsu’ and SP MLC Ravi Shankar Singh ‘Pappu’ also attended the special session in the Vidhan Parishad.
SP rebel and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav and BSP MLA Mohammad Aslam Raini extolled Yogi in their address in the house while Congress rebel MLA Rakesh Singh, from Rae Bareli, was seen waiting for his turn.
(Both Nitin Agarwal and Shivpal are technically Samajwadi Party MLAs though Agarwal has joined the BJP while Yadav has formed the PSP).
The assembly’s special session began on October 2 to mark 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and has had uninterrupted debate on the ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.
As the session is to close late Thursday evening, the rewards have already started pouring in for the ‘opposition rebels’, who turned up defying their respective party’s directives to boycott the house.
Aditi Singh has been given ‘Y+ category’ security.
“Yes, my security has been upgraded to ‘Y plus’ level,” said Aditi on phone.
Police officials said the security of Aditi Singh has been upgraded keeping in view the threat perception.
On Thursday, BSP’s Raini, too, pointed towards bad condition of road near his house in Shravasti district and said although the chief minister had sanctioned funds for the roads the money had not reached his district. Raini said he was sure the necessary works concerning his area would be carried out as he was in house to raise the issues concerning the people.
Shivpal, too, praised chief minister leadership, saying UP was in honest hands.
Meanwhile, the opposition slammed the government as leader of opposition in the state assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary said: “They are offering all sorts of inducements, resorting to threats and using all possible tactics to get support of opposition MLAs. This government wants to finish the opposition in Uttar Pradesh.” BSP legislature party leader Lalji Verma said his party had not issued any whip to boycott the proceedings. “Our party has deployed MLAs for campaigning and other duties in the ongoing by-election to 11 assembly seats. Those who had time to spare may have turned up in the assembly,” said Verma, who himself has been campaigning for his daughter, who is a BSP candidate on Jalalpur assembly seat of Ambedkar Nagar district.
Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu was not available for comment. Senior party leaders, however, said before announcing the decision to boycott the special session Lallu had written a letter to all the party MLAs to attend the session and he did not issue any whip to boycott the house. When contacted, Aditi Singh said she did not receive any whip from the party to boycott the session.
BJP ABSENTEES
Interestingly, while the Yogi government succeeded in luring six opposition’s MLAs, some BJPs legislators stayed away from the house. Former ministers Rajesh Agarwal and Dharam Pal Singh were conspicuous by their absence in the house. BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal also did not attend. An official, however said Agarwal was out of Lucknow and thus could not take part in the proceedings of special session.
