Nitin Agarwal, who was elected as a legislator on the Samajwadi Party ticket but then cozied up to the ruling BJP, is all set to be the deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly with the support of the saffron party. A miffed Samajwadi Party, which has fielded Narendra Verma as its official candidate for the contest that is taking place just months ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, hit out at the BJP, accusing it of trying to sabotage democracy, and asserted that the post should traditionally go to the opposition party.
After the election on Monday, Uttar Pradesh will get its first Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly after a gap of over 14 years. In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP had won 304 seats in the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly and its majority in the House will ensure Agarwal’s victory. According to sources, Samajwadi Party had moved the Speaker seeking disqualification of Nitin Agarwal from the Assembly 5-6 months and around 15-20 days back the Speaker rejected the petition.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh were present during the filing of nomination on Sunday by Nitin Agarwal, whose father Naresh Agarwal had quit the SP and joined the BJP in 2018. “The BJP has followed all parliamentary traditions. The post is (generally) reserved for the principal opposition party. You (SP) were not able to give a candidate, and when a candidate came, it was Nitin Agarwal, and we are supporting him. We have come here to give respect to the parliamentary traditions,” Adityanath later told reporters.
Reacting to the opposition’s criticism, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said Nitin Agarwal became an MLA on an SP ticket, and even today is an SP MLA. “All the parliamentary traditions were followed. And if there are two candidates in the fray, there will be voting,” he said.
Nitin Agarwal wore a blue ‘patka’ bearing the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan at the time of filing his nomination. His father and former UP minister Naresh Agarwal was also present. “I have submitted four sets of nomination papers. Those who have proposed my name are Congress MLA from Harchandpur Rakesh Pratap Singh, BSP MLA from Purva Anil Singh, Cabinet ministers Suresh Khanna, Swami Prasad Maurya and Ashutosh Tandon, minister Chhatrapal Singh, and MLA Rajpal Verma,” Nitin Agarwal told PTI.
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