Pioneer News Service/Lucknow Bahujan Samaj Legislature Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya will be the new Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha as the 50-member BSP becomes the single largest Opposition party after the en masse resignations by the Samajwadi Party MLAs.

Meanwhile, a brief session of the State Legislature will begin from September 26.

Talking to newspersons here on Tuesday, Vidhan Sabha Speaker Keshari Nath Tripathi said the leader of the largest opposition party in the House was named the Leader of Opposition according to traditions and parliamentary practice.

The 102-member Samajwadi Party, whose effective strength was reduced to 92 was the main opposition party in the House. However, the en masse resignations by the SP MLAs left BSP as the single largest opposition party in the House.

The resignations by the SP MLAs continued to flow in. The Speaker said with seven more resignations, the total number of resignations by the SP MLAs went upto 80.

An independent MLA Radhey Shyam Singh also quit.

The SP MLAs whose resignations were accepted by the Speaker on Tuesday included Vinod Kumar Singh, Ashok Bajpai, Ram Pyare Singh, Manik Chandra Yadav, Babu Khan, Sitaram Nishad and Sudhakar Singh.

A total number of 84 MLAs including 80 from the SP have so far resigned from the House. Moreover, two independents and one each of BJP and Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party also resigned from the 403-member Vidhan Sabha. There are a total number of 319 members including 157 of the BJP in the House.

In reply to a question, the Speaker said that the resignation of members of the Left parties could not be accepted for want of verification.