In over 110 years, Congress goes without representation in UP Legislative Council

Motilal Nehru was Congress' first MLC in the House in 1909

For the first time in more than 110 years of Uttar Pradesh's Legislative Council, the country's oldest party Congress will have no representative as its only member in the State's Upper House is set to retire on Wednesday.

The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council had come into existence in 1887 and Motilal Nehru was Congress' first MLC in the House in 1909.

Deepak Singh, the grand old party's only MLC, is among the 12 members whose term in the Legislative Council is coming to an end. Poet Zahid Hassan alias Wasim Barelvi of the Samajwadi Party (SP) is also among those whose tenure is ending on Wednesday.

In March, the tenure of the lone Muslim minister in the Yogi Adityanath 1.0 government Mohsin Raza as the MLC had ended, while SP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Ahmad Hassan had died in February.

In the recent polls to the State's Upper House, three new Muslim members, including State Minister Danish Azad Ansari of the BJP and two from the SP - Shahnawaz Khan and Jasmir Ansari - were elected.

The Congress, which is arguably going through its worst phase, is not in a position to send any of its representatives to the Legislative Council this time as it had won only two of the 403 seats in the assembly elections held earlier this year.

Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona termed the development "sad".