13 newly elected Uttar Pradesh MLCs sworn in

Lucknow, Jun 14 (PTI) Thirteen newly elected members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council were sworn in at Vidhan Bhavan on Friday.

After the newly elected MLCs took oath for the 100-member Upper House, the strength of the Samajwadi Party increases to 10, and it now qualifies for the post of Leader of Opposition in the house.

On March 14, 13 candidates were declared elected unopposed in the biennial elections of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council -- ten candidates from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and three from the Samajwadi Party.

The SP did not qualify for the LoP post before as it fell short on the required number of MLCs. The BJP-led NDA has a brute majority in the legislative council like it has in UP's Vidhan Sabha.

The Principal Secretary of the UP Legislative Council, Rajesh Singh, told PTI that with the SP now has the required numbers for LoP post.

On Friday evening, UP Legislative Council Chairman Kunwar Manvendra Singh administered the oath of membership to 13 newly elected members in the Tilak Hall of the Vidhan Bhavan.

Among the MLCs who took oath are Dr Mahendra Singh, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Ashok Kataria, Ramtirth Singhal, Santosh Singh, Dharmendra Singh and Mohit Beniwal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Ashish Patel of NDA ally Apna Dal (S), Vichhelal of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Yogesh Chaudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) were also sworn in.

Samajwadi Party's Balram Yadav, Shah Alam and Kiran Pal Kashyap also took oath at the Vidhan Bhawan. PTI AR CDN CDN SKY SKY