Akhilesh appointed Leader of Opposition in UP Assembly

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav was appointed the leader of opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Saturday, hours after he was unanimously elected as the leader of the SP legislature party.

Yadav, who won from Karhal in Mainpuri in his maiden assembly contest and chose to quit his Lok Sabha membership to focus on the state politics, will come face-to-face with his principal opponent and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the Assembly for the first time as he looks at future electoral battles.

In a statement, Principal Secretary of the UP Assembly Pradip Kumar Dubey announced Yadav's appointment as the leader of opposition with effect from March 26.

Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh SP chief Naresh Uttam had announced Yadav's election as the leader of the legislature party. Under Yadav's leadership, the SP will raise various issues concerning people in the assembly, counter any false claims made by the state government and oppose its wrong policies, Uttam said.

In a related development, while the SP legislature party meeting was underway, Yadav's uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav who has been elected MLA from his traditional Jaswant Nagar seat in Etawah on an SP ticket told reporters that he has not been invited to attend it.

Asked about Shivpal Singh Yadav not being invited, Naresh Uttam clarified, "Only Samajwadi Party MLAs were called for today's meeting. On March 28, a meeting of MLAs of the alliance partners, irrespective of whether they had contested on 'bicycle' (SP symbol) or their party symbols, will be held."

"Shivpal Singh has a party of his own and is an alliance partner and MLAs of all the alliance partners are being called for the meeting on March 28. Akhilesh Yadav will consult them and people's issues will be raised in the house after discussion and in agreement with the alliance partners," Uttam said.

Uttam said that during the meeting, the newly elected MLAs lauded the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav.

"The MLAs have given their blessings to Akhilesh-ji to raise various issues faced by people in the Assembly and forcefully oppose false claims and wrong policies of the government.