As UP Assembly goes on without Deputy Speaker, recalling a 1957 experiment

The Congress and the Opposition were at odds over the Deputy Speaker’s post in the first Assembly. Five years later, Socialist Party’s Ram Narain Tripathi became the first Opposition leader to become the Deputy Speaker.

In Uttar Pradesh, the election of a Deputy Speaker has always been a point of contestation between parties, from the first Assembly in 1952 to now. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

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The Supreme Court earlier this month served a notice to the Union of India and five states, including Uttar Pradesh, pointing out that they had not filled up the post of the Deputy Speaker. The court said Article 178 of the Constitution mandates that the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker be filled. But it does not lay down a specific time frame for the elections.

In Uttar Pradesh, the election of a Deputy Speaker has always been a point of contestation between parties, starting with the first Assembly in 1952. The Congress proposed the name of Atmaram Govind Kher for the Speaker’s post and tried to persuade the Opposition parties to agree to a unanimous election, but the Socialist Party led by Raj Narain said they would accede to the demand only if the ruling party agreed to make an Opposition leader the Deputy Speaker.

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But Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant opposed the Socialists’ demand and the Congress, which had 388 of the 430 Assembly seats, saw elections being held for the Speaker’s post after three days of frenetic negotiations to arrive at a consensus candidate. As a result, Kher faced off against Socialist Party’s Nihaluddin, the MLA from Badaun North. In the elections held on March 20, 1952, Kher won overwhelmingly with 366 votes while Nihaluddin received only 24. In the end, the Congress MLA from Ranikhet (South), Har Govind Pant, was elected the Deputy Speaker.

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Govind Ballabh Pant was already in Delhi as the Union Home Minister by the time the next Assembly polls came around, having moved there in 1955. During the second Assembly elections, Dr Sampurnanand was the chief minister and in the polls, the Congress’s tally came down to 286. The Praja Socialist Party (PSP) bagged 44 seats, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) won 17, the Communist Party of India (CPI) nine seats, and 74 Independents won.

This time around, the ruling party and the Opposition were on the same page. Kher was unanimously re-elected as the Speaker on April 10, 1957, with the Opposition not fielding a candidate against him. Though an election for Deputy Speaker was held on May 8 that year, both sides had arrived at a consensus. Sampurnanand, Raj Narain, and then Revenue Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh played a key role in the negotiations.

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Socialist Party leaders Ram Narain Tripathi, Narain Dutt Tiwari and Genda Singh, and Independent MLA Krishndutt Paliwal filed nominations for the Deputy Speaker elections. Later, all others withdrew their nomination papers and Tripathi, a Socialist leader from Ambedkar Nagar (then in Faizabad), was unanimously elected. He became the first Deputy Speaker chosen from the Opposition benches.

Since then, the 1957 experiment has been cited as the model to follow whenever the Deputy Speaker’s post has emerged as the bone of contention between the ruling party and the Opposition. Interestingly, in the 13th UP Assembly that was in session from 1996 to February 2002, the BJP was in power since October 1997 but a Deputy Speaker was elected only on September 28, 2001, which was the last day of the Assembly’s last session. The person elected was seasoned Congress leader Ammar Rizvi, who joined the BJP in October 2019.

Shyamlal Yadav

Shyamlal Yadav is one of the pioneers of the effective use of RTI for investigative reporting. He is a member of the Investigative Team. His reporting on polluted rivers, foreign travel of public servants, MPs appointing relatives as assistants, fake journals, LIC’s lapsed policies, Honorary doctorates conferred to politicians and officials, Bank officials putting their own money into Jan Dhan accounts and more has made a huge impact. He is member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He has been part of global investigations like Paradise Papers, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, Uber Files and Hidden Treasures. After his investigation in March 2023 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York returned 16 antiquities to India. Besides investigative work, he keeps writing on social and political issues. ... Read More

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