Speaker ‘partial’, SP slams no-trust notice

The Speaker, however, denied the charges levelled by the SP leaders. ‘‘The SP is against me because my style of functioning does not suit them,’’ he said. He added that he was ready to face the no-confidence motion.

Earlier addressing mediapersons, Khan accused Tripathi of denigrating the image attached to the post of Speaker. He also said that since he took over as Speaker, Tripathi had been encouraging defections to save governments and the latest victim was the Congress.

‘‘The Speaker’s partial functioning has dealt a blow to democracy and to those who believe in democratic norms,’’ Khan said. Recalling Tripathi’s statement in the House, saying: ‘‘I will quit the post even if one MLA has no confidence in me’’, the SP leader said: ‘‘He should stick to his statement and resign on his own.’’

Calling the Mayawati government unconstitutional, Khan said the Governor allowed Mayawati to form the government though she had the support of only 191 MLAs. ‘‘Now she is out to engineer defection from Opposition parties by hook or by crook,’’ he alleged.

Khan said that as per rules, the notice should be served 14 days before the Assembly session was convened and by doing this, his party had foiled the ruling parties’ move to call the Assembly session at a short notice to avoid the no-confidence move.

On seeking support of other Opposition parties, Khan said talks were already on and he was hopeful of their support to oust the Speaker.