The Bharatiya Janata Party, after its second consecutive victory in UP Assembly elections, has initiated the process for the election of the Assembly Speaker. Speaker of the 17th UP Assembly, Hriday Narayan Dikshit, had not contested the Assembly election as he had turned 75 years. The BJP is looking for his successor in the new Assembly.
“The exercise to elect the new speaker will be conducted after the swearing-in ceremony of the chief minister and the cabinet. The names of Suresh Khanna, Satish Mahana and Ramapati Shastri are doing rounds as prospective names for the position,” a senior BJP leader said.These leaders are senior-most in terms of legislative experience among all BJP MLAs in the state, he added.
A nine-time MLA from Shahjahanpur, Khanna (68) has served as a minister in the governments of Yogi Adityanath, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta. He was also a minister of state in the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government headed by Mayawati in 2002. In the earlier Yogi Adityanath-led government, Khanna was minister for parliamentary affairs, medical education and finance.
Mahana is another senior BJP MLA who is being considered for the post of assembly speaker. In his tenure as a legislator, Mahana contested from Kanpur Cantonment constituency for the first five terms and then from Maharajpur constituency for the remaining terms. The 61-year-old leader also owns a business.
Like Khanna, Mahana has also been a minister of state in the governments led by Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta, Mayawati and cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
The third name that is being considered is Ramapati Shastri, 72, who is the newly elected MLA from Mankapur (SC) seat in Gonda district. The agriculturist-turned-politician has served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Yogi Adityanath. He is a six-term MLA.
“As he belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, Shastri’s name is under consideration. His appointment as the assembly speaker will send out a strong message to the Dalits,” a party leader observed.