Lucknow, January 19: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today became the first party in the state to get absolute majority in the full House of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.
The strength of the BSP in the Upper House has now gone up to 56 after winning 34 out of the 36 seats of the Council from local Bodies constituencies recently. The ruling party is likely to add another 10 seats later this year when the elections from the Assembly constituency would be held.
After Independence, Congress had the majority in the Council, but not in the full House of 100-member as the elections to elect the representatives from the local bodies were held for the first time in 1998.
State Legislative Council sources here said after 36 newly elected members took oath of the membership this noon, the BSP emerged as the majority party in the 100-member House.
The House is also expected to get its first Dalit chairman though the election for the post is slated during the session starting from January 21.
BSP member K K Gautam, who has been nominated as an acting chairman after the term of Samajwadi Party chairman Choudhury Sukhram Singh Yadav, expired on January 15.
Mr Gautam is likely to be elected chairman of the Upper House later this month.
The strength of different political parties in the Upper House are BSP-56, SP-15, BJP-10, Congress-3, RLD-3, Teachers group-9, Independent-3 and Vacant-1.
–Agencies