The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati and 10 others were sworn in as members of the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) on Wednesday. Two other newly-elected members were not present in the ceremony. The Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Parishad, Ahmed Hasan was conspicuous by his absence in the oath taking function.
In a departure from the past, the oath taking ceremony was conducted in the Tilak Hall of the State Secretariat with the Council Chairman, Ganesh Shankar Pandey conducting the oath of office and secrecy to the newly-elected members of the Upper House of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature. Earlier, the oath taking was conducted in the House, the Central Hall of the State Assembly, or in the Chairman's chamber.
According to an official, the change was necessitated on account of the Chief Minister's security.
Again, in a marked departure from the past and in an unprecedented gesture the Council Chairman presented a bouquet to the Chief Minister after administering the oath to her as a (Bahujan Samaj Party) member of the House. The other 10 newly-elected members of the Vidhan Parishad were denied the privilege of being greeted with bouquets. Ms. Mayawati was administered the oath first followed by others.
A senior member of the House present in Wednesday's function was of the opinion that bouquets should have also been presented to the other newly-elected members, who took oath as MLCs.
Incidentally, the function was attended by the Chairman of Uttar Pradesh Advisory Council, Satish Chandra Mishra and the General Secretary of the BSP. Mr. Mishra, who has made a comeback of sorts after being sidelined by the Chief Minister in March, was seated next to Ms. Mayawati on the dais where the Council Chairman, the Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Sukhdev Rajbhar, the Leader of the House ( Vidhan Parishad ), Swami Prasad Maurya and the Leader of the Teachers' Group, Om Prakash Sharma were also present.
Mr. Mishra is a Rajya Sabha MP.
Besides, Ms Mayawati, the others who took oath were Athar Khan, Rishipal, Ram Kumar Kureel, Virendra Kumar, Satish Chandra, Subodh Kumar, Lal Chand, Naseeb Pathan Khan, Yashwant and Hridaya Narain Dixit. Not present on Wednesday were Balram Yadav and Ram Sunder. Thirteen candidates were elected unopposed in the biennial elections to the Parishad in June.
