Photo: Subir Roy

A DAY OF PROTEST: Former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh coming out of the Assembly on Tuesday after it was adjourned for the day.

LUCKNOW: The Mayawati Government faced the heat from the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the second successive day in Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday as the principal Opposition party reiterated its demand to delete the term "unconstitutional Government" from Governor T.V. Rajeswar's address.

Mr. Rajeswar had used the term for the Samajwadi Party Government in his address to the joint sitting of the State Legislature on Monday.

As pandemonium prevailed with the Samajwadi MLAs staging a dharna in the Well and raising slogans, Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar adjourned the House for the day.

Barring the motion of thanks on the Governor's address, tabled by Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Om Prakash Singh and the passage of the Amendment Bill renaming King George's Dental University in Lucknow as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Dental University, no other business could be conducted.

While the Leader of the House, Chief Minister Mayawati stayed away, Leader of the Opposition, Mulayam Singh was present. Mr. Singh refused to present his amendments to the motion of thanks till the Speaker gave his ruling on deleting the word "unconstitutional" from the Governor's address.

The deputy leader of Samajwadi Party, Mohd Azam Khan, raised the issue immediately after the Vidhan Sabha assembled at 11 a.m.

Taking potshots at the Governor, Mr. Khan said as the head of the State he had addressed the House during the tenure of the previous Government. Many laws were framed and salary of the State staff was approved by this House in the three-and-a-quarter years of the Samajwadi Party Government. He said if the Governor felt that the previous Government was "unconstitutional" he could have used his powers to dismiss it.

Stating that the Governor was the representative of the President of India, Mr. Khan said the SP would appeal to the President to take strict action against him. He reiterated that the portion be deleted from the Governor's address.

As the SP MLAs swarmed the Well of the House, the Speaker's plea was turned down by the Leader of Opposition. The House was adjourned thrice by Mr. Rajbhar as the SP MLAs refused to relent. The motion of thanks and the Amendment Bill were tabled as bedlam continued. The House was adjourned for the day following the ruckus created by the SP legislators who even tried to reach the Speaker's podium and jostled with the Assembly guards.

In the Vidhan Parishad (Upper House), SP MLCs swarmed the Well and staged a dharna on the same issue and forced House to be adjourned for the day.

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