Lucknow, Oct 14 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh Assembly will elect its Deputy Speaker who will hold office for less than five months before the new Assembly is constituted.

The state Assembly was constituted on March 14, 2017 and the end of its five-year term will also mark the end of term of the new Deputy Speaker.

The BJP has decided to field SP MLA Nitin Agarwal as its candidate for Deputy Speaker on October 18 when a special one-day session of the state Assembly is held to mark 75 years of Independence.

Suresh Khanna, Minister for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs, confirmed that Agarwal will be the choice for election to the post

As per tradition, the Deputy Speaker is elected from among the members of the main opposition party.

Interestingly, Agarwal is a Samajwadi Party MLA who had crossed over to the BJP in 2018. The Samajwadi Party's petition seeking Agarwal's disqualification was rejected recently.

His father, former minister Naresh Agarwal, is also a BJP leader.

Leader of Ppposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said: "We are not aware of the agenda of the Assembly session. A meeting of the business advisory committee will apparently convene on October 17, 2021. As per tradition, the Deputy Speaker is elected from the main opposition party. The election is done in consultation with leaders of opposition parties. If they want to elect a member of Samajwadi Party as the Deputy Speaker, they would have consulted our leadership."

When asked, Nitin Agarwal said: "I have no indication about my likely election to the post of Deputy Speaker. But if given any responsibility, I will perform duties to the best of my ability."