Maintaining quorum poses challenge in Vidhan Parishad

LUCKNOW: Maintaining quorum in the 100 member-Uttar Pradesh legislative council (Vidhan Parishad) amid empty Opposition benches posed a challenge as the bicameral legislature’ s first-ever 36-hour special session to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi began here on Wednesday.

The Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress abstained from the special session.

The absence of the Opposition, which is often quite noisy, can make the entire proceedings lacklustre in any legislative chamber as was evident in the Vidhan Parishad on Wednesday. Only members of the treasury benches, the non-political teachers’ group and the independent group took part in the debate. Even the ruling party members were seen leaving and joining the House frequently. By around 2pm, the presence of the members fell below the required quorum of 11.

The situation prompted the chair to repeatedly announce that members could go for lunch one by one only.

Earlier, the special session began with a proposal for adoption of a resolution by the government to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals, including eradication of poverty and hunger by 2030 as propounded by the United Nations.

Leader of the house and deputy

chief minister Dinesh Sharma enumerated the steps taken by the Central and the state governments to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams.

He regretted the Opposition was not there in the House to make the discussion even more lively.

BJP ally Apna Dal (S) member Ashish Patel gave an hour-long speech on how Bapu and his teachings were relevant in the modern time.

Taking the Opposition to task for their boycott, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said the session was convened with the prior consent of the Opposition leaders who even participated in the meetings called for the purpose.

Leader of the Opposition Ahmad Hasan was not available for comment despite repeated attempts to reach him.