Akhilesh Yadav and Yogi Adityanath. (Express Archives) After over a decade, Uttar Pradesh has a former chief minister as leader of the opposition in the Assembly. Akhilesh Yadav was appointed to the post after the Samajwadi Party elected him to lead its legislature party on Saturday.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, his father, was the last chief minister who chose to become leader of the opposition, when Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party was in power.
With Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath being chosen as leader of the BJP’s legislature party—with support from alliance partners such as the Apna Dal (S) and the NISHAD party, it is clear that Adityanath and Akhilesh would be face to face in the Assembly for the next five years.
During Adityanath’s first term, the SP had chosen veteran leader Ram Govind Chaudhary as its legislature party leader and he was also chosen as leader of the opposition. Akhilesh then chose to lead the party nationally as a member of Parliament. While Chaudhary lost this year’s election, Akhilesh won from the Karhal constituency and decided to quit his Parliament membership.
Despite being the largest opposition party, the SP did not have as many MLAs then as it has now, while the BSP and the Congress had a combined strength of 26 legislators.
This time the SP and its alliance partners are practically the only opposition left in the state—the party has 111 MLAs while the Rashtriya Lok Dal has 8 legislators and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party six. The others on the opposition benches are two MLAs each from the Congress and the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik and one from the BSP.
The ruling coalition has 403 MLAs—255 from the BJP, 12 from the Apna Dal (S) and six from the NISHAD party.
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