Team News Riveting
Lucknow, October 18
In a major political move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave a big jolt to the Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead of the assembly election and ensured the victory of its rebel leader to the Deputy Speaker’s post.
Nitin Agrawal of SP was elected the Deputy Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Monday. His candidature was backed by the BJP as he gained 304 votes while the official SP candidate Narendra Verma could poll 60 out of the 364 valid votes cast. Agrawal also received a vote each from Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Agrawal, SP rebel MLA from Hardoi, who has been keeping distance with his party since 2019 and his father joined the BJP just before the general elections. He filed his nomination papers on Sunday accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministers.
The SP had fielded Narendra Verma as its official candidate. Adityanath however justified the decision and said the ruling party had respected the decorum of the House by election “leader” from the opposition party as Deputy Speaker.
While the Samajwadi Party termed the ruling party’s decision to back its rebel as “democratic”, Congress boycotted the election stating that the political drama was orchestrated to divert the attention of the state from many sensitive issues on which the Adityanath government had failed.
