LUCKNOW: The Congress is set to lose its representation in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council for the first time since the formation of the Legislative Council in 1935—the party’s lone MLC Deepak Singh is retiring on July 6.
Singh was elected to the TTP Legislative Council in June 2016 and with the end of his term, the Congress will cease to exist in the Upper House. A popular face in Congress state politics, Deepak has been a party worker since his college days in the early 1990s.
The Council of the United Provinces of British India came into existence with 60 members by the Government of India Act of 1935. It was later changed to the UP Legislative Council in 1950. The Congress was part of the state’s upper house since 1935.
The development has affected the morale of Congress workers who are yet to recover from the party’s dismal performance in the recent assembly elections, in which it won just two seats. Since then the party has not even appointed a new state president.
There are 100 seats in the UP Legislative Council, of which 38 are to be nominated by the members of the UP Legislative Assembly, while 36 members are to be elected through local bodies. Eight members are selected through graduates and teachers’ constituency elections while the remaining 10 members are nominated by the governor on the recommendation of the state cabinet.
The BJP currently has 66 members in the council while the SP is the second largest party with 14 members. As per the records of the Legislative Council, 15 members are due to retire in the next few months. Of these, 10 are from the Samajwadi Party, two each from the BJP and BSP and one from the Congress. With three BSP MLCs retiring on July 6, the party will be left with only one member.
