Lucknow: Eight-time BJP MLA Satish Mahana was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav lauded his election and promised to contribute positively to the functioning of the House.
Speaking in the Assembly after Mahana was elevated to the Speaker’s chair, Adityanath said it was a good sign for the state that the two “wheels of democracy” (power and opposition) moved in one direction.
He appealed to the members of the House that elections have been held and it is their duty to work for the progress of UP.
Speaking further, Yadav lauded the “start of a healthy tradition” in the House by unanimously electing the Speaker.
He urged Mahana to act neutrally as the Speaker and protect the rights of the opposition.
Akhilesh said, “Though you come from the Right (BJP), now you will look more towards the Left (Opposition). Being the referee of the House, you should not be a part of their game.”
“It will be your duty to protect the rights of the opposition and prevent the government from becoming a dictatorship,” Yadav said.
Acting President Ramapati Shastri announced the election of Mahana unopposed, the only nomination he had for the post.
Governor Anandiben Patel had fixed March 29 as the date for the election of the Speaker.
Mahana’s nomination was proposed by Adityanath and supported by senior minister Suresh Khanna.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav had also proposed Mahana’s name and his party’s Awadhesh Prasad supported it.
Apart from this, leaders of other political parties including Raghuraj Pratap Singh of Jansatta Dal Loktantrik and Aradhana Mishra of Congress had also proposed his nomination.
Mahana has been elected for the eighth time from Maharajpur seat of Kanpur district in the recently concluded assembly elections.
Born on 14 October 1960 in Kanpur, he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1991.
Apart from being the Minister of State for Urban Development in the Mayawati-led government of the BSP-BJP alliance, he has also been a minister in the governments led by Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh.
He was the industrial development minister in the previous Yogi Adityanath government.
The BJP-led alliance had won 273 seats in the seven-phase elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
The SP-led alliance got 125 seats.
Congress and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik got two seats each, while Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party got one seat.