Lucknow, Dec 8 (IANS): The Samajwadi Party (SP) is likely to get the position of a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in May next year.

Since July, the UP Legislative Council has been functioning without an LoP since the UP Legislative Council Secretariat derecognised SP’s Lal Bihari Yadav when the party’s strength in the Council fell to nine.

The criterion of the Council is that the largest group in the Council gets to nominate one of its members as the LoP and the largest group must have a minimum of 10 members.

A total of 13 seats in the Council will fall vacant in May 2024 and the SP, by way of the number of members in the Assembly, would be able to elect at least four members.

Ten Bharatiya Janata Party members and one each of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are scheduled to retire on May 5.

“The SP will be able to elect at least four members which will take the SP MLCs’ number to 12,” said Lal Bihari Yadav, SP MLC and former LoP.

The council elects most of its members through indirect elections by the MLAs.

The Samajwadi Party has 109 MLAs while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has nine and together they will be able to elect four MLCs.

The BSP will not be able to elect an MLC after its lone MLC retires because the party has only one MLA in the Assembly.