LUCKNOW: The budget session of Uttar Pradesh assembly began on a high note on Monday with the Samajwadi Party members marching into the well of the House during the governor’s address.
Later as opposition MLAs raised the slogan “governor go back”, governor Anandiben Patel read out her address. Besides getting the Uttar Pradesh budget for 2022-23 passed, the state government proposes to table four ordinances that have been promulgated after the last session of the state assembly.
Earlier, SP MLA Azam Khan and his son Abdullah, who is also an MLA from Swar Tanda, were formally sworn in as members of the assembly by the speaker Satish Mahana in his chamber. Azam, however, was not seen in the House thereafter as his seat, that lay besides that of Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Akhilesh Yadav, remained unoccupied.
The SP MLAs were on their toes while Akhilesh Yadav stood on his seat moment after ‘Vande Matram’ song was played. This was the first appearance of Akhilesh Yadav in Vidhan Sabha as the LoP.
While almost all the Samajwadi Party MLAs wore red caps, associated with the party’s identity, two MLAs – PSPL chief Shivpal Yadav, who is the SP MLA from Jaswant Nagar and Mohd Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam – neither wore the red cap nor did they jump into the well of the House in solidarity with other party members when the governor was addressing the joint sitting.
Interestingly, Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal members, who are in pre-poll alliance with Samajwadi Party, were also part of the protest. Even Bahujan Samaj Party’s lone MLA Uma Shanker Singh also joined the protest, sending out signals of being on the same page as SP members in disrupting the governor's speech.
This was also the first paperless address by the governor in the Uttar Pradesh assembly as UP became only the second state after Nagaland to go paperless.
Alliance partner Rajbhar opposes house protest by SP MLAs
TNN
LUCKNOW: Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Monday disapproved of the protest staged by Samajwadi Party MLAs during the governor’s address. Rajbhar, whose party contested the 2022 polls in alliance with SP, said his party MLAs did not take part in the protest.
“This is what I have been seeing for the last five years. This is the sixth year. I do not like it. It should change (protest during the governor’s address). My party MLAs did not participate in the protest. We have taken an initiative towards changing this practice,” he said.
Rajbhar’s jibe at SP national president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday that he needs to come out of his air-conditioned room and tour the state created a stir in the political circles. Continuing his attack on Yadav, a day after, Rajbhar said he was asked by SP people to suggest their party chief to start touring the state, meeting party leaders and working to make the party ‘sangathan’ strong.
“I attended five meetings of my party yesterday. If I can do it, why can’t he?” he said referring to Yadav.
Maintaining that “in an alliance everyone has to work hard to win an election”, the SBSP chief said the SP national president did not do it. “He did not work whole-heartedly for the 2022 elections. We did not work as hard as was needed to win the election.”
