Lucknow: The special session of Uttar Pradesh assembly to commemorate 75th years of independence would begin from Monday. The UP assembly would elect a deputy speaker in this session after a gap of over one decade. The ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has fielded rebel Samajwadi Party legislator Nitin Agarwal as candidate. Despite not having numbers, the main opposition SP too has filed the nomination of its candidate Narendra Verma for the post. BJP and allies have 325 members in the UP assembly which has a total strength of 403.
The speaker of UP assembly HN Dixit informed that the special session would begin on Monday in which the election process of deputy speaker is to be completed first. On Sunday, the SP rebel legislator Nitin Agarwal filed his nomination for the post of deputy speaker in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. On this accession, CM Yogi Adityanath said that traditionally the post of deputy speaker goes to the main opposition party but the SP did not announce its candidate in the given time. "Hence we had no option but to field Nitin Agarwal as candidate".
However Nitin, a rebel SP legislator had switched loyalties in 2019 when his father former MP Naresh Agarwal had joined BJP just before the parliament elections. The leader of opposition in UP assembly Ram Govind Choudhury had filed a petition before the speaker seeking disqualification of Nitin from the house. However it was rejected by the speaker HN Dixit.
Meanwhile the SP too has decided to enter in the fray for the post of deputy speaker. The party has fielded legislator Narendra Verma for the post. SP only has 47 members in the UP assembly and no other party has extended its support as yet.
