BJP-backed Nitin Agarwal elected deputy speaker of UP assembly

Lucknow, Oct 18: Hardoi MLA Nitin Agarwal, who had the backing of the ruling BJP, is elected deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Monday. He defeated the official candidate of Akhilesh Yadav's SP by a margin of 244 votes.

Nitin Agarwal, a rebel SP candidate, garnered 304 votes while Verma ended up getting 60 votes in the poll held inside the assembly premises through ballot paper.

A total of 368 were cast in the 403-member assembly out of which four votes were declared invalid.

The BSP and Congress boycotted the election.

Congress accused the BJP and SP of having a friendly fight due to which it kept itself out of the polling.

"Neither the BJP nor the Samajwadi Party want to ensure justice for farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence or to discuss this important issue. They are into a 'noora kushti' (friendly fight) and so we are boycotting the deputy speaker's election and sitting on a dharna," UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu told PTI.

He said that the election is being conducted to divert the attention of the people from the recent Lakhimpur Kheri incident. He claimed that Congress will fight till Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra is sacked.

Nitin Agarwal is a third-term MLA from Hardoi and the son of former state minister Naresh Agarwal who had left the SP to join the BJP.

Over Nitin Agarwal's proximity with the BJP, the SP slammed the saffron party for trying to sabotage democracy stating that the post should traditionally go to the opposition party.