With nine MLAs in jail and two absconding, the ongoing session of the UP Assembly has several seats left vacant.
Of the nine legislators in jail, six belong to the BSP, two to the Samajwadi Party while one is an Independent.
Though some of the jailed legislators have applied for court permission to attend the brief Monsoon Session, it is likely that permission will be granted for the five-day session.
Prominent among the ruling party MLAs currently lodged in jail is Shekhar Tiwari, who grabbed headlines two years ago for lynching a PWD engineer in Aurraiya when the latter refused to pay money for the chief minister’s birthday fund. Tiwari bail application has been rejected on more than one occasion though his wife Vibha Tiwari, a co-accused, was granted bail a few months ago.
Former BSP minister Jamuna Prasada Nishad is also in Maharajganj jail since June 2008 when he created mayhem at a police station along with his supporters and shot dead a constable. Another former BSP minister Anand Sen Yadav is in Faizabad jail since November 2007 when he was charged with the abduction and murder of his pregnant girlfriend Shahi.
Mukhtar Ansari is in Ghazipur jail since 2005 for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnand Rai. Mukhtar Ansari joined the BSP last year but was shown the door after he failed to win the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi. The two other BSP MLAs in jail are Sonu Singh, accused in the murder of Sant Gyaneshwar, and Haji Alim, accused of abduction and rape of Nepali girls who were forced to work in his circus.
The SP MLAs in jail are Sripati Azad, accused of burning alive his paramour in Gorakhpur, and Amar Mani Tripathi, convicted in the Madhumita Shukla murder case.
The Independent MLA in jail is Yashpal Rawat in connection with the murder of a contractor. The two MLAs who have been declared absconder are Vijay Misra of the SP and Yogendra Sagar of the BSP.
Misra, who has a criminal history, is wanted in cases of auto-lifting and also in the conspiracy to eliminate UP minister Nand Gopal Nandi. Yogendra Sagar is facing a rape charge.
Meanwhile, a former Speaker of the UP Assembly said, “This is the first time in legislative that so many MLAs are either in jail or are absconding at one given time. The trend is acquiring dangerous proportions and political parties must keep criminals away from the Vidhan Sabha if they want to maintain the dignity of the state legislature.”