The brief monsoon session of the Uttar Pradesh legislature starting on Monday, the first after the Lok Sabha polls, is expected to be stormy, with the principal opposition Samajwadi Party trying to gain political mileage inside the assembly after its Lok Sabha victory.
With the SP appointing former Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey as the new Leader of the Opposition (LoP) after Akhilesh Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha, the opposition will try to create a similar picture as it is doing in Parliament.
The five-day brief session, which will end on August 2, will also approve the first supplementary budget to the tune of around Rs 15,000 crore, which will be tabled in the assembly on July 30.
Additional funds for Prayagraj Maha Kumbh-2025, Ganga Expressway, and other projects will be sought through the supplementary budget.
The state government had presented the annual budget of Rs 7.36 lakh crore for 2024-25 on February 5, 2024.
State assembly speaker Satish Mahana chaired an all-party meeting and a business advisory committee meeting of the House on Sunday to seek the cooperation of leaders of all the political parties.
The Speaker said, “We have sought the cooperation of leaders of all the parties during this session”.
Both the ruling party and the opposition are working out their strategy ahead of the monsoon session.
While the SP held its legislature party meeting on Sunday afternoon, the ruling BJP will do the same on Monday morning before the session starts at 1100 am.
The BJP will look to put its house in order to effectively counter the opposition’s attacks. State parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said that the government is ready to discuss all issues raised by the members, but it should be as per the rules and with permission from the chair.
The new LoP, Mata Prasad Pandey, said that all the burning issues like unemployment, caste census, Agniveer, and law and order will be raised prominently during the session. He said the opposition members will also protest against writing the names of the outlet owners on Kanwar roads, and raise the issues of UP’s neglect by the Centre in the Union budget and efforts by the BJP to manipulate the Constitution.
The session will be a test for the ruling BJP, which faced internal rumblings among party leaders after the Lok Sabha polls. Apart from this, the role of the NDA partners will also be tested during these five days of sittings.