United opposition rattles Yogi Government in UP

The opposition unity might have gone awry in Bihar but in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh the united opposition has rattled ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, who, despite enjoying a mammoth majority, is finding it hard to run Vidhan Sabha.

All the three opposition parties namely Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress account for just 78 members in the 403 member Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. But its decision to boycott House proceedings has unnerved Yogi-led NDA government which has whopping 325 members in the Vidhan Sabha. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna is pleading almost everyday asking opposition parties to attend House proceedings but the united opposition is sticking to its stand.

“The Government wants to run Vidhan Sabha in an autocratic way. It does not want opposition to speak. If this is the intention of the Government it is better that the opposition should stay away from the House,” Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Ram Govind Chaudhry told this correspondent.

The opposition parties decided to boycott House proceedings when Leader of Opposition was not allowed to ask supplementary question after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s address on budget on July 19. In that speech Yogi had ordered CBI probe into the appointments made by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission during Samajwadi Party regime. When the opposition insisted on asking supplementary question, the mike of the Leader of Opposition was switched off.

This action infuriated opposition leaders. They joined rank and decided to boycott the House proceedings. The combative opposition even held a mock assembly at the Central Hall on July 24 to condole the death of a sitting MLA Mathura Prasad Pal. It was a strange sight. The ruling BJP members paid tributes to the deceased MLA inside Vidhan Sabha while the opposition held their meeting in Central Hall of the Vidhan Sabha secretariat.

Angry BJP members raised this issue in Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday and assembly speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit promptly issued notice to three opposition parties asking them to explain their conduct for holding mock House session at the Central Hall of Assembly building on July 24.

BJP law maker Manish Asija said the members of the opposition have violated the established tradition and democratic conventions by holding a mock Assembly which is contempt of the House. Other BJP MLAs Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Suresh Chandra Srivastava and Ashok Singh Chandel supported Asija.

Speaker action would be taken against opposition party members as per `Rules of business for the conduct of proceedings of the UP Assembly’.

“Opposition cannot ignore their parliamentary duty. They (opposition leaders) have even violated tradition and rule of the House,” the Speaker said.

Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said that members were within their rights to hold a mock assembly to condole death of one of their colleagues.

“This is an autocratic government and wants everyone to sign on the dotted line. We might be in small number in the House, but the opposition unity has proved that treasury benches cannot run the House effectively,” he said and added, “This unity has proved that we if stand together we can counter BJP.”