Rajbhar elected UP Assembly Speaker

Lucknow, May 18 (UNI) Bahujan Samaj Party's Sukhdev Rajbhar was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly today.

Rajbhar's election was announced in the Legislative Assembly by pro-tem speaker Shyamdeo Roy Chaudhury.

Rajbhar's name was proposed for the post by various political parties, including Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and some independents. Altogether, seven proposals were filed in his favour by various political parties.

Former Chief Minister and now leader of Opposition Mulayam Singh Yadav was conspicuous by his absence. But Chief Minister Mayawati was present today. Incidentally, while Mr Yadav was present during Rajbhar's nomination yesterday, Ms Mayawati was absent.

Rajbhar was the only candidate to have filed papers for the post.

Rajbhar had resigned as a cabinet minister on Wednesday after his name was accepted for the post of Speaker at an all-party meeting.

He had taken oath as a minister on last Sunday. He replaced Mata Prasad Pandey (SP).

A four time MLA, Rajbhar had been a minister on two occasions. He had also represented the BSP in the Legislative Council.

During the last BSP-BJP government, Rajbhar was state Parliamentary Affairs minister.

During his first address to the newly-elected legislators, Rajbhar said his aim would be to take everyone along while running the 404-member strong house.

He said a special training programme would be organised for new MLAs to help them learn the basics of functioning of the House.

UNI