UP Governor raises question over outgoing Speaker's decision to name LoP

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik today questioned the action of outgoing state Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey to recognise Ram Govind Chaudhary as the Leader of Opposition and said it was against established norms.

Citing certain Constitutional provisions, he wrote a letter to the new Assembly, urging the members to deliberate on the "democratic and Constitutional propriety" of the outgoing Speaker granting recognition to Chaudhary as LOP on his last day in office.

As per traditions, only the Speaker of the new House can decide on the LOP in the new Assembly, a Raj Bhawan release quoted the Governor as saying.


The letter also raised a question that why a tradition followed by all the states was not maintained here.

It is also not clear in the notification issued in this regard yesterday as to "what constitutional void, crisis or unconstitutionality would have arisen" if the matter of LOP was left to the Speaker of the new house, the release said.

Yesterday, a notification was issued by the secretariat of the Legislative Assembly regarding Chaudhary being made the LOP of the 17th Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Both Pandey and Chaudhary belong to the Samajwadi Party and are considered close to its president Akhilesh Yadav.