SP's Lal Bihari Yadav becomes Leader of Opposition in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council

    Lucknow, Jul 22 (PTI) Samajwadi Party member Lal Bihari Yadav has been made the Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.
    "Legislative Council Chairman Kunwar Manvendra Singh, using the power given in the Constitution, has made Lal Bihari Yadav the Leader of Opposition in the House," the council's Principal Secretary Dr Rajesh Singh said in an order issued here.
    The party's national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI that SP's Kiranpal Kashyap has been made the chief whip in the Legislative Council, while Ashutosh Sinha has been made the whip and Jasmeer Ansari has been made the deputy leader of the council.
    For the post of leader of opposition in the 100-member House, the largest opposition party needs at least 10 members.
    Earlier, the SP did not have the numbers but following the Legislative Council elections held in March this year, the party's membership increased to 10 after securing three additional seats.
    At present, the ruling BJP has the highest number of 79 members in the Legislative Council. Apart from these, there is one member each of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Apna Dal (Sonelal), Nishad Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Jansatta Dal Loktantric and Teachers' Group and four Independent members.
    One seat is still vacant in the Upper House.
    Yadav hails from Azamgarh and is member from the Varanasi Teachers constituency.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)