Lucknow, Mar 28 (PTI) The Rashtriya Lok Dal has appointed its MLA Rajpal Baliyan as leader of its legislature party and MLA Gulam Mohammad as deputy leader.
While Baliyan is the RLD MLA from Budhana in Muzaffarnagar district, Gulam Mohammad won the assembly poll from Siwal Khas in Meerut.
The two appointments were made after the two MLAs were elected unanimously as leader and deputy leaders of the RLD’s legislature party in its meeting held on Saturday, the party said in a statement on Monday.
In the meeting, the party’s MLA from Chhaprauli in Baghpat district, Ajay Kumar, was made the chief whip and legislator Mohd Ashraf Ali from Thana Bhawan in Shamli district was made deputy whip, it said.
RLD lawmaker Pradip Guddu from Sadabad in Hatras district was made treasurer of the legislature party, the release added.
The party has also conveyed its decisions on various appointments in its legislature wing to Principal Secretary Pradip Kumar Dubey of the state legislative assembly, the release said further.
The RLD’s newly-elected legislature party leader Baliyan had won from the Khatauli constituency in 1996 and 2002.
This time he defeated BJP’s Umesh Malik from Budhana, considered a stronghold of Jat-dominated Khaps in western Uttar Pradesh.
Sisauli, the village of Naresh Tikait and Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait), who had led the agitation against the three agricultural laws of the Center, also falls in the Budhana area.
Ajay Kumar who was made chief whip was elected from the Chhaprauli seat which was once represented by the former prime minister, late Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Ashraf Ali, who was made deputy whip, defeated the then Sugarcane Minister Suresh Rana, causing a major upset in the recent elections in Thana Bhawan.
Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD contested the assembly elections in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and won eight seats. The party had only one MLA in the previous assembly.
