Thaindian News

Lucknow, Nov 21 (IANS) Accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of not following the “constitutional provisions” to get passed in the assembly the resolution for splitting the state into four, the opposition parties Monday asked Governor B.L. Joshi to act against Mayawati for her “anti-constitutional move”.

Leader of Opposition Shivpal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said: “The way Mayawati got the resolution passed is nothing less than the murder of a democracy. We demand the entire proceedings of the assembly must be cancelled, and a new session convened for having a debate over the sensitive issue related to division of the state.”

“If Mayawati was so confident of having a majority, she would not have run away from the debate over the partition of the state… We demand Mayawati must prove she actually enjoys the majority,” added Yadav after meeting the governor at Raj Bhawan.

Demanding that the central government and parliament not accept the resolution passed by Mayawati, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader Om Prakash Singh told reporters: “It is very disgraceful that constitutional provisions were not followed by the chief minister for passing the resolution on such a sensitive and important issue.”

“It is very sad that even Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar also assisted Mayawati in the entire process,” he said.

“We have asked the governors to immediately act against Mayawati for not adhering to constitutional provisions. We demand the central government and parliament must not accept the resolution regarding the division of Uttar Pradesh.”

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said: “We believe passing such a resolution within minutes and that too without holding a debate is against the constitutional provisions. We condemn it, and definitely approach the governor in this regard.”

The Mayawati government managed to get the much-discussed resolution for dividing Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states passed by a voice vote in the assembly Monday, taking full advantage of the uproar created by the opposition.

Speaker Rajhbhar also adjourned the house sine die barely an hour after it met for what was stated to be the commencement of the state assembly’s winter session.

Within minutes of the session’s start at 11 a.m., almost the entire opposition rose up to unanimously raise the demand for the Mayawati government’s ouster, leading Speaker Rajhbhar to adjourn the proceedings for an hour.

No sooner did the house reassemble at 12.20 p.m. than the opposition once again resorted to slogan shouting. This came in handy for Mayawati, who tabled the resolution herself.

She quickly read out the brief and crisp resolution seeking the division of Uttar Pradesh into four states - Purvanchal, Pashchim Pradesh, Avadh Pradesh and Bundelkhand - and within the next two minutes, the speaker declared it passed by a voice vote, which again remained inaudible in the din and noise in the house.