Uttar Pradesh’s Vidhan Sabha got a new deputy speaker on Monday, backed by the BJP but from the Samajwadi Party.
Nitin Agarwal, an MLA from Sadar, Hardoi, was the minister of health and family welfare in the previous SP government. However, he has been on a rebellious spree against the party. The SP had tried to get him disqualified from the House, but the petition was rejected by the speaker.
The official candidate of the opposition party was Narendra Verma.
The final vote tally was 304 for Agarwal and 60 for Verma. Thus, an SP candidate opposed by the SP won.
Agarwal had, not too long ago, described the SP regime as one of ‘corruption’ and ‘jungle raj’. His father Naresh Agarwal left the party to join the BJP in 2018.
The SP has cried foul and accused the BJP of subverting democracy.
It is through a common understanding that while the speaker of the House belongs to the ruling party, the deputy speaker is from the opposition.
It's after 14 years that the UP Assembly had got a deputy speaker.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said, “We have not broken any tradition. For four-and-a-half years, the SP could not give a candidate because of party infighting. We are only fulfilling our responsibilities by backing an opposition member”.
The Congress boycotted the election. However, Aditi Singh, party MLA from Rae Bareli, cast her vote.
Agarwal had filed his nomination on Sunday in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
On Monday, SP MLAs protested inside the House against the BJP’s undercutting move that comes just months before the Assembly elections.