UP CM Yogi Adityanath, 2 deputy CMs take oath as MLCs

Yogi and Maurya, who are sitting MPs from Gorakhpur and Phoolpur (Allahabad) seats, will now have to resign from their constituencies

A day before Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath completes six months in office, he took oath as the member of the Vidhan Parishad, the Upper House of the state legislature.

Apart from Yogi, two deputy chief ministers, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, transport minister Swatantra Dev Singh and state WAQF minister Mohsin Raza also took the oath for the legislative council.

The five ministers, including Yogi, were administered the oath by Vidhan Parishad chairman Ramesh Yadav.

A member of the council of ministers is statutorily required to get elected to either of the two houses, Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad, within six months of assuming office. Since, Yogi council of ministers had taken oath on March 19, 2017, they were required to become members of the legislature by September 18.

Earlier, they were elected unopposed to Vidhan Parishad following polls to the five vacant seats of the house.

Yogi and Maurya, who are sitting MPs from Gorakhpur and Phoolpur (Allahabad) seats, will now have to resign from these constituencies, since a person cannot be a member of two houses simultaneously.

Except for Raza, the remaining four ministers, including Yogi, were declared elected to Vidhan Parishad on September 8. Raza was declared elected on September 11, since the polling to his seat was announced a few days later.

Over the past few weeks, six UP Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) had resigned from their seats, necessitating polling to the vacated seat. Those who had resigned included five Samajwadi Party (SP) members viz. Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Bajpai and Ambika Chaudhary, apart from a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLC Thakur Jaivir Singh.

Political analysts had credited these resignations to BJP floor managers to save Yogi and his ministers from direct poll for Vidhan Sabha, which could have presented an opportunity to the opposition to unite and divert the attention of BJP from its other agendas.

Now, the BJP strength has also increased by five seats in the Upper House, where SP still enjoys comfortable majority.