10 newly elected UP MLCs take oath

As many as 10 newly-elected members of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council today took oath at the UP Vidhan Bhawan here.

The biennial elections were held last month to fill 13 vacant seats in the UP Council.

Chairman of UP Legislative Council Ramesh Yadav administered the oath to the new members in the presence of deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Those who took oath are Sarojini Agarwal, Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Jaiveer Singh, Vidhyasagar Sonkar, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Ashok Kataria, Mohsin Raza and Ashok Dhawan (all BJP).

Ashish Singh Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal) also took oath as member of the Upper House of the state legislature.

While three other MLCs -- Mahendra Singh, UP minister of state (independent charge) for rural development, Naresh Uttam (UP SP Chief) and Bhimrao Ambedkar (BSP) are likely to take oath tomorrow.

Raza, the lone Muslim face of BJP in council of ministers, holds the portfolios of Science and Technology, Electronics, Information Technology, Muslim Waqf and Haj as MoS.

After today's oath BJP has 20 members in the 100-member House and is still far short of the half-way mark to ensure smooth passage of bills.

The SP has 54, BSP seven and Congress two.