While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s strategy helped it to successfully win the UP Assembly Deputy Speaker elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) also showed a tough fight. BJP’s Nitin Agarwal won the Deputy Speaker of UP Assembly post by bagging 304 votes, while the SP-supported candidate Narendra Singh Verma managed to get 60 votes.
Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party has so far only 49 MLAs in the state assembly, including Shivpal Yadav, who formed his own outfit and Nitin Agarwal, who recently switched over to the BJP. SP bagging 60 votes shows that nearly 13 MLAs went for cross-voting. As per information, those who voted for SP candidate included the 8 BSP rebel MLAs, 3 SBSP MLAs, BJP MLA from Sitapur Rakesh Rathor and Apna Dal MLA RK Verma. Shivpal Singh Yadav and Omprakash Rajbhar did not come to the house to vote. Only three MLAs of Omprakash Rajbhar’s party have cast their vote.
The election of the Deputy Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly was held after a gap of 14 years. In July 2004, BJP’s Rajesh Agarwal was elected unopposed and his tenure was till May 2007. The following election for the post of Deputy Speaker was not held. At present, BJP has 304, Samajwadi Party 49, Bahujan Sammaj Party’s 16, Apna Dal’s nine, Congress’s seven, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party’s four, Independents three, unaffiliated members two and one MLA each in Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nishad Party.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media after the declaration of the results, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said, “the Opposition knows what is going to be the result in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections.”
Leader of Opposition Party Ramgovind Choudhary attacked BJP and said that the election shows the party’s casteist stance as Verma belongs to Kurmi cast”. “Today will be remembered as a black day in parliamentary history. The anti-OBC face of BJP has been shown in the house. BJP pretends to show support and love for OBC and Dalits and didn’t allow Narendra Verma to become the vice-president because he belongs to the Kurmi caste. Narendra Verma was a backward caste candidate of Kurmi caste. BJP has done politics,” he stated.
