UP: Eight-term MLA Satish Mahana likely to be BJP’s choice for Speaker

He was one of the big names to be dropped from the previous Cabinet. He won from Maharajpur Assembly seat in Kanpur district.

Sources in the BJP said the party dropped him because it was considering Mahana’s name for Speaker’s election because of his long legislative experience.

In the outgoing Assembly, Hriday Narayan Dixit was the Speaker. He, however, did not contest the elections, and the BJP was looking for his successor in the new Assembly. Earlier, the names of Suresh Khanna, Mahana and Ramapati Shastri were doing the rounds as prospective names for the position. After Khanna was re-inducted into the new Cabinet, Shastri and Mahana were left in the race, sources said.

Shastri was on Saturday appointed pro tem Speaker and will administer the oath to the newly elected MLAs. Election for the Speaker is scheduled on March 29 and nomination will be filed on Monday.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary on Sunday confirmed that the Opposition party will not field a candidate in Speaker’s election. “SP will follow the tradition. BJP has the majority… We expect that the new Speaker will be impartial in carrying out his duties in the Assembly,” Chaudhary said.

The BJP has won 255 seats, and its two allies have together won 18 seats. The SP has won 111 seats, while its allies have won another 14 seats.