Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (India)
Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (India)
	16th Assembly
Type
Type	Bicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Mata Prasad Pandey, SP; Since 13 April, 2012
Deputy Speaker	Vacant
Leader of the House	Akhilesh Yadav, SP; Since 15 March 2012
Leader of Opposition	Swami Prasad Maurya, BSP; Since 16 March 2012
Structure
Seats	403
Political groups	SP (229); BSP (79); BJP (41); INC (29); RLD (8); IND (8); PP (4); QED (2); TMC (1); AD (1); IMC (1); NCP (1) and; Vacant (1)
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	8 February to 3 March, 2012
Meeting place
	Vidhan Bhawan, Lucknow
Website
	http://www.uplegisassembly.gov.in

The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha (Hindi: उत्तर प्रदेश विधान सभा) is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It has a total of 404 members including one Anglo-Indian member who is nominated by the Governor. Till 1967, it had a strength of 431 members including one nominated Anglo-Indian member. According to the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission, which is appointed after every Census, it was revised to 426. After reorganization of the State on 9 November 2000, the strength of the Legislative Assembly has become 404 including one nominated member to represent the Anglo-Indian community.^[1] The Term of the Vidhan Sabha is five years unless dissolved earlier. The election for it is held on the principle of "one adult one vote".

History

Pre-independence

The Legislative Assembly for the United Provinces was constituted for the first time on 1 April 1937 in accordance with the Government of India Act, 1935. The strength of the Assembly as stipulated under the Act of 1935 was 228 and its term was five years. Sri Purushottam Das Tandon and Sri Abdul Hakim were elected the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker respectively on 31 July 1937.^[2]

Post-independence

After Independence, the Legislative Assembly met for the first time on 3 November 1947. At its meeting on November 4, 1947, the Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution for the use of Hindi for the transaction of all its business and proceedings and accordingly all the business of the House was thereafter transacted in Hindi.

On February 25, 1948, the Assembly passed a resolution requesting the Governor to submit to the Governor General the request of the Assembly to the effect that the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad and the Oudh Chief Court be amalgamated.

Another important Resolution passed by the House on October 18, 1948 congratulated the Government of India, the military commanders and the soldiers on their successful police action against the Hyderabad State.^[3]

Post-republichood

The first session of the U. P. Legislature (a provisional legislature) under the new Constitution, began on February 2, 1950 with an address by the Governor to both the Houses assembled together in the Assembly Hall. Prior to the commencement of the session, the Governor administered the oath to Hon'ble Sri P. D. Tandon and Hon'ble Sri Chandra Bhal respectively in their respective chambers, thereafter all other members present took oath or made affirmation, as required by the Constitution, in their respective Houses.

An important legislative measure passed in 1950 was the U. P. Language (Bills and Acts) Act, 1950, which provided that the language to be used in Bills and Acts shall be Hindi in Devanagri script. In 1951, the U. P. Official Language Act was passed adopting Hindi in Devanagri script as the language to be used for official purpose of the State.

On 11 August 1950 the Hon'ble Speaker Sri Purshottam Das Tandon resigned from his office. On 21 December 1950 the Deputy Speaker, Hon'ble Sri Nafisul Hasan was elected the Speaker. Hasan replied to the congratulatory speeches on the occasion, he declared that unlike his predecessor, he would not be taking part in politics as long as he remained the Speaker.

Sri Hargovind Pant was elected the Deputy Speaker on January 4, 1951.^[4]

After the first elections

The newly elected Assembly of Uttar Pradesh met on May 19, 1952. On May 20, 1952, Hon'ble Sri Atma Ram Govind Kher was elected the Speaker. Govind Kher speaking on the occasion, said that of the two different conventions set by his two predecessors in office in the matter of taking part in politics he would like to follow neither but would strive to follow a middle course in this regard. He said that he would not take part in active politics nor hold any office in the Congress Party to which he belonged, but at the same time he would continue to be a member of that party and take part in non-controversial activities, particularly relating to social and developmental work.^[5]

Summary of results (1951 - date)

Summary of results for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in UP from 1951 to date has been consolidated; see: Elections in Uttar Pradesh

Elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly were held in:

1951^[6]
1957^[7]
1962^[8]
1967^[9]
1969^[10]
1974^[11]
1977^[12] Janata Party: 352, Congress: 47
1980^[13] Congress: 309, Janata (Socialist) of Charan Singh: 59, BJP: 11
1985^[14]
1989^[15] Total: 425. JD: 208, INC: 94, BJP: 57
1991^[16] Total: 425. BJP: 221, JD : 92, INC: 46, JP: 34, BSP: 12
1993^[17] Total: 425. SP: 109, BSP: 67, BJP: 177, Cong: 28, Janta Dal: 27
1996^[18] Total: 425. SP: 110, BSP: 67, BJP: 174, Cong: 33
2002^[19] Total: 403. SP: 143, BSP: 98, BJP: 88, Cong: 25
2007^[20] Total: 403. SP: 97, BSP: 206, BJP: 51, Cong: 22
2012^[21] Total: 403. SP: 224, BSP: 80, BJP: 47, Cong: 28