Ramesh Yadav administers oath to the new MLCs

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

As many as 10 newly-elected members of UP Legislative Council took oath at Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Tuesday. The biennial elections to the upper house of UP Legislature were held last month to fill 13 vacant seats in the Council. Chairman of UP Legislative Council Ramesh Yadav administered the oath of office to the new MLCs in the presence of Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma and state BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey. 

Those who took oath were Sarojini Agarwal, Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Jaiveer Singh, Vidhyasagar Sonkar, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Ashok Kataria, Mohsin Raza and Ashok Dhawan (all BJP).

Ashish Singh Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal), an ally of the BJP, also took oath as the member of the Upper House. Three other MLCs — Minister of State (independent charge) for Rural Development Mahendra Singh, state SP chief Naresh Uttam and Bhimrao Ambedkar of BSP — are ecpected to take the oath on Wednesday. Mohsin Raza, the lone Muslim face of BJP in the council of ministers, holds the portfolios of Science and Technology, Electronics, Information Technology, Muslim Waqf and Haj as the minister of state. After Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, BJP now has 20 members in the 100-member House but the ruling party is still short of the half-way mark to ensure smooth passage of bills. SP has 54 members, BSP seven and Congress two.