The Monsoon Session of both the houses of the Uttar Pradesh legislature will start from Monday and is likely to be a stormy one with the main opposition party, the Samajwadi Party (SP) making its intentions clear by organising a protest march in the run-up to the session which will conclude on September 23.
On Sunday, the Speaker of the U.P. Legislative Assembly Satish Manaha chaired an all-party meeting and asked the co-operation from the floor leaders of the parties in the smooth functioning of the house. Both the major stakeholders in the U.P. legislature, the BJP and the SP organised their own party meeting on Sunday to decide on the strategy for the Monsoon Session — the BJP’s legislature party meeting was held at Lok Bhawan while the SP held one at the State party headquarters.
The SP decided that all its MLAs and MLCs would reach the Vidhan Bhawan on foot under the leadership of its national president with placards in their hands highlighting issues like unemployment, price rise and law and order failure in the State.
“All the MLAs and MLCs of the SP will gather at the party office to march to the Vidhan Bhavan under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav. In the foot march, the MLAs will have placards in their hands, in which unemployment, inflation, exploitation of women, law and order problems, disturbances in the field of education, health, electricity crisis, injustice done to farmers and youth etc. will be mentioned,” said Rajendra Chaudhary, chief spokesperson of the party.
The BJP took potshots at the Opposition for protests and alleged that the SP was indulging in negative criticism. “We want the house to function properly, so that the issues of the people come to the forefront. Akhilesh Yadav has no connect with the masses and is indulging in negative criticism,” said Hero Vajpai, BJP spokesperson.
In the Monsoon Session, September 22 has been reserved for women members in which they can speak and raise their concerns. “A day is reserved for the female legislatures. The decision was made in response to complaints that the female MLAs weren’t given the proper time to speak and raise their issues,” said the Assembly Speaker in a statement.
