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Adityanath may resign from Gorakhpur parliamentary seat today

Since membership of UP legislature is imperative for holding post of CM, Yogi has to resign from his parliamentary seat

Yogi Adityanath, UP CM, Adityanath
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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditiyanath during the 71st Independence Day function in Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

Virendra Singh Rawat Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was elected unopposed to the Vidhan Parishad (legislative council) on September 8, is likely to resign from his Gorakhpur parliamentary seat on Monday.

Yogi is on a day’s visit to the national capital and scheduled to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to sources, the CM is also likely to call upon Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and hand over his resignation from the Gorakhpur constituency.

Under the law, a person can retain the membership of only one house either Parliament or a state legislature at a time.

Since, the membership of the UP legislature is imperative for holding the post of CM or being a member of the state council of ministers, Yogi has to resign from his parliamentary seat.

Apart from Yogi, three of his council of minister colleagues were also declared elected unopposed to the Upper House, since the opposition had not fielded any candidate.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys a brute majority in the Vidhan Sabha, 325 out of 403. Vidhan Parishad seats are filled through indirect polling by Vidhan Sabha members.

Other ministers elected to Vidhan Parishad included deputy CMs Dinesh Sharma, Keshav Prasad Maurya and state transport minister Swatantra Dev Singh. None of them, apart from UP minister of state for Waqf Mohsin Raza, were members of the state legislature.

A member of the council of ministers, including CM, is required to get elected to either of the two houses viz. 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.

Mohsin Raza, who is contesting another vacant Parishad seat is likely to be declared elected unopposed since his seat is also not being contested by the opposition.

Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is the sitting Member of Parliament from Phoolpur (Allahabad) constituencies, will also have to resign in due course. Sharma was the mayor of Lucknow before becoming a deputy CM.

Over the past weeks, six UP Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) had resigned from their seats, necessitating this poll. These 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.

These resignations have been credited to the BJP floor managers to save Yogi and his ministers from the 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.

The indirect election would also increase the BJP tally in the Upper House, where SP still enjoys a comfortable majority.