Tiwari re-elected CLP leader in UP for 5th time

Lucknow, Feb 8 (UNI) Pramod Tiwari was today re-elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Uttar Pradesh for fifth consecutive term.

AICC general secretary in charge of UP affairs Digvijay Singh was in the state capital to oversee the CLP election.

Mr Tiwari has been the CLP leader since 1991. There were talks of replacing him after the April, 2007 assembly elections and the election of the CLP leader was postponed on several occasions.

Senior MLA Ram Sewak Prasad proposed the name of Mr Tiwari and he was elected unopposed.

Mr Tiwari has won Assembly elections eight times in a row since 1980 from Rampur Khas constituency in Pratapgarh district.

His re-election as CLP leader was marred today following the resignation of a party MLA Ajay Pratap Singh alias Lalla Bhaiyya before the assembly speaker on the floor of the house.

Ajay Pratap Singh, the Congress MLA from Karnalganj in Gonda district resigned from his seat on the floor of the house charging the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for ignoring the state in developmental works. Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar accepted his resignation. The MLA also resigned from the primary membership of the party.

UNI NAB PK HT1816