Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as a member of the State Legislative Council on Monday, serving a mandatory six-month term to be elected to any of the state chambers after taking office.
Two Deputy Chiefs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were also sworn in by Legislative Council President Ramesh Yadav at a function in Tilak Hall of the imposing Legislative Building in Lucknow.
Two other ministers Swantradev Singh and Mohsin Raza were also sworn in.
Mr. Raza, Minister of State, is the only Muslim face of the 48-member Council of Ministers headed by the 45-year-old Chief Minister.
All were recently declared unopposed to the State Legislative Council in the partial elections to five seats that became vacant when the members in office resigned recently.
Mr. Adityanath has become the successor third minister after Akhilesh Yadav (SP) and Mayawati (BSP), to opt for the Upper House.
With all five seats going to the BJP, the party’s score has risen to 13 in the 100-member upper chamber, where the opposition still enjoys the majority.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has 61 members in the Legislative Council, the Party Bahujan Samaj (BSP) nine, Congress two and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) one. While 12 seats are occupied by “others,” two are vacant.
The Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues had to be elected to any of the Chambers of State within six months of their assumption on 19 March.
The seats fell vacant when Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashok Bajpai – all members of the Samajwadi party – and BSP MLC Thakur Jaiveer Singh resigned and joined BJP later.
Other U.P. The main ministers who opted for the Legislative Council route are Narain Dutt Tiwari and Ram Prakash Gupta (BJP).
Former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had become a member of the Legislative Council of the UP in November 1980, after assuming the Prime Minister’s Office in June 1980.
Later it disputed a partial election of the circumscription of the Assembly of Tindwari, and became member of the U.P. Legislative Assembly in 1981.
