K N Tripathi Likely To Be Up Speaker

Kesri Nath Tripathi of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to be elected as the speaker of Uttar Pradesh Assembly today under a power-sharing agreement with BSP with the two parties enjoying the support of 243 MLAs in the 425-member house.

In a surprise eleventh-hour move, Swami Omvesh, a member of Samajwadi Party which is the second largest group in the Assembly with 109 members, filed his nomination for the post.

Omvesh, who filed his nomination just 15 minutes before close, however said he was yet to talk to his party leadership on his candidature.

Omvesh, who won the Chandpur Assembly seat in Bijnor district as an independent, later joined the Samajwadi Party.

Meanwhile, in an interesting turn of events, Pramod Tewari, who was recently ousted from his post of CLP leader by his party colleague Naresh Agarwal, claimed his party would support Tripathis candidature. However, the rival clp camp is yet to spell out its stand.

The agreement, which saw BJP and BSP forming a coalition in the state a few days back, stipulated, among other things, that BJP would get the Assembly speakership.