JOIN USBJP-backed SP rebel wins UP assembly deputy speaker's election
Samajwadi Party (SP) rebel MLA Nitin Agarwal on Monday emerged victorious in the election for the post of deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly with the support of the BJP.
Agarwal, son of former UP minister Naresh Agarwal, defeated the official SP nominee Narendra Singh Verma by 244 votes, according to the official sources.
Agarwal has not yet formally joined the BJP. He polled 304 votes while the SP candidate could secure only 60 votes in a house of 403 members.
Though the term of the assembly would be expiring in the next few months, getting Agarwal elected as the deputy speaker was said to be part of BJP's election strategy and an attempt to woo the 'vaisya' community in the forthcoming assembly polls, which are barely five months away.
Although Congress and the BSP had boycotted the election, two Congress MLAs, Aditi Singh and Rakesh Pratap Singh and as many as eight rebel BSP legislators voted for Agarwal, sources said, adding that at least one BJP MLA and an Apna Dal (AD), an alliance partner in the UP government, voted for the official SP nominee.
SP member and leader of the Opposition in the assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary accused the BJP of breaking traditions by fielding its nominee for the post of deputy speaker, a charge refuted by the saffron party.
''The post of the deputy speaker traditionally goes to the main opposition party... but the BJP does not believe in traditions,'' Chaudhary said.
BJP leaders however dismissed the charges and said that Agarwal was 'technically' still an SP member.
SP had moved a petition before the UP assembly speaker Hriday Narain Dixit seeking disqualification of Agarwal under the Anti-defection Act but it was rejected.