UP Assembly session to see shifting loyalties

When the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha meets on Monday, possibly for the last session before going into elections, the complexion of the House will have changed rather drastically.

In the political world of shifting sands and loyalties, boundaries have already been broken with MLAs defecting to other parties, and almost all parties are feeling the heat.

If Samajwadi Party has lost seven members of legislative assembly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has lost eight and the Congress six. The BJP has suffered minimum damage with only one MLA turning rebel.

These legislators, as per the tradition, will not sit with their parent parties, and will remain either isolated or will sit with their new parties. Since the disqualification petitions for them are not settled yet , they continue to be members of the House, which means there is still no change in the official list of party numbers in the state Assembly.

The biggest and most unprecedented setback, however, is the defection of BSP MLA and Leader of Opposition Swami Prasad Maurya.

With Mr Maurya joining the BJP, the BSP has almost lost its voice as he was one of its most vocal members, known to launch the most vicious attacks on the rival parties. New Leader of Opposition Gaya Charan Dinkar is rather meek and under his leadership, the BSP is unlikely to challenge the ruling SP.

The BJP, on the other hand, is determined to position itself as a viable alternative to the SP. Buoyed by the fact that maximum number of defecting legislators have opted for the BJP, the party is preparing to take on the SP on issues ranging from the Bulandshahar highway loot and rape case to the attack on BJP leader Brijpal Teotia in Ghaziabad and the overall deterioration in the law and order.

“We’ll corner the SP on its inaction on matters related to BSP — whether it is sitting over the Lokayukta recommendations or the recent cases against BSP leaders for making derogatory remarks against the minor daughter of expelled BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh. We are positioning ourselves as the only alternative to the SP,” said BJP legislator Suresh Khanna.

The Samajwadi Party, in this session, is bound to be defensive following the obvious tensions with the Yadav clan. A party MLA, who belongs to the SP shouting brigade, said, “We would rather keep quiet this time because of the war within. It is better to play safe because our tickets are still to be finalised”.

The Congress, which has lost six MLAs in the past two months, is likely to have minimal presence in the House since a number of its MLAs will participate in the two yatras that are being flagged off from Lucknow on August 21.

REBEL MLAs BSP: Swami Prasad Maurya, Rajesh Tripathi, Bala Awasthi, Romi Sahni, Brajesh Varma, Uday Lal Maurya, Chotelal and Mahavir Rana Congress: Dr Mohd Muslim, Nawab Kazim Ali, Dilnawaz Khan, Sanjay Jaiswal, Madhuri Varma, Vijay Dubey Samajwadi Party: Rampal Yadav Nawazish Alam, Shyam Prakash, Abid Raza Khan, Sher Bahadur Singh, Mukesh Sharma and Guddu Pandit BJP: Vijay Yadav