Rajbhar resigns as UP minister; likely to be sworn in as Speaker

Lucknow, May 16 (UNI) Sukhdev Rajbhar, who was sworn in as a cabinet minister in the Mayawati government on May 13, today resigned from his post and is likely to be elected as the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly.

Mr Rajbhar tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Mayawati. It is expected that he will take over as the next Speaker of the assembly on May 18. He can file his nomination for the post till 1200 hrs tomorrow.

The decision to elect Mr Rajbhar as Speaker was taken at an all-party meeting this afternoon. The meeting was attended by BJP's Lalji Tandon, Congress' Pramod Tiwari, RLD's Kokab Hamid and BSP's Swami Prasad Maurya.

Meanwhile, BSP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Satish Chandra Mishra was inducted into the cabinet. He would be sworn in at Raj Bhawan at 1900 hrs.

Rajbhar was the Parliamentary Affairs minister in the previous Mayawati government.

UNI