Uttar Pradesh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan made his displeasure known to the government and the Samajwadi Party leadership for not supporting him on the Bukhari issue when he took oath as an MLA in the Vidhan Sabha Speaker's chamber, instead of in the House. In the House agenda for Thursday, Mr. Khan was on the number one slot of the 67 remaining MLAs, who had not taken their oath on Wednesday.
The oath to Mr. Khan was administered by senior MLA Pramod Tiwari. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister took his oath in Urdu and since Hindi is the language of the House he followed it up with oath in Hindi as well.
The spat between Mr. Khan and the Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, began after the latter rejected the SP's offer of fielding his son-in-law in the Legislative Council election, insisting on two seats for the Muslim community. On Thursday, he agreed to field his son-in-law in the election.
The Minister, who skipped the oath-taking of the MLAs on Wednesday, was present in the Assembly on Thursday and was seated next to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Aalam Badi of the Samajwadi Party and Sibghatullah Ansari of the Quami Ekta Dal (QED) also took their oath in Urdu and then in Hindi.
The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, of the Bharatiya Janata Party was not present.
New Speaker
Meanwhile, Mata Prasad Pandey is all set to become the next Vidhan Sabha Speaker after he filed his nomination on Thursday. He will be declared elected on Friday.
