UP Budget Session Opens Amid SP Protest As Pallavi Patel Stays Seated

Last Updated:February 09, 2026, 18:59 IST

The session commenced at 11 am with the customary address by the Governor, but within minutes of her beginning the speech, SP MLAs walked into the well, raising slogans

The Budget session of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature began on a stormy note on Monday morning as sloganeering by Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators disrupted Governor Anandiben Patel’s address to the joint sitting of the Assembly and the Legislative Council.

The session commenced at 11 am with the customary address by the Governor, but within minutes of her beginning the speech, SP MLAs walked into the well of the House, raising slogans over inflation, unemployment, the Special Investigation Report (SIR) issue, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other matters. The persistent noise forced the 84-year-old Governor to pause her address briefly.

Visibly reacting to the growing uproar, Governor Patel appealed to the protesting legislators to maintain calm, remarking, “Shaant ho jaiye, varna gala baith jayega (Please calm down, otherwise your throat will give way)." Despite the disruption, she went on to complete her address in approximately 30 minutes.

Notably, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel, who has often aligned herself with opposition protests, did not participate in the sloganeering and remained seated at her place throughout the address.

Following the Governor’s speech, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna tabled what he described as an achievements report for the 2025–26 session — the first such presentation of its kind in the current Budget Session. The move, however, immediately drew sharp objections from the SP benches, who accused the government of bypassing established legislative procedures.

SP MLA Sangram Singh Yadav criticised the presentation, alleging that the Finance Minister merely reiterated what had already been stated by the Governor. “Whatever the Governor said has been repeated word for word by the Finance Minister. This exercise is only meant to create newspaper headlines," Yadav said. He demanded a detailed discussion on the contents of the report, asserting that such a debate was necessary to establish the truth behind the government’s claims. “There should be a discussion so that milk is separated from water," he remarked.

The SP legislators also objected to the timing and manner in which the report was introduced, claiming that the Business Advisory Committee had not been informed in advance about the presentation of such a document. According to the opposition, the move undermined parliamentary conventions and reduced the exercise to a publicity-driven announcement rather than a serious legislative submission.

The uproar continued for a while before the proceedings were adjourned. The House was finally adjourned till 11 am on Tuesday.

Outside the disruptions, the opening day of the Budget Session also witnessed several political moments that caught attention in the Assembly corridors. When Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya arrived in the House, a group of MLAs surrounded him, eager to click photographs and take selfies, briefly turning the premises into a scene more reminiscent of a public event than a legislative sitting.

Another notable presence was BJP MLA Brijbhushan Rajput, who had recently courted controversy for allegedly confronting state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh during a visit to Mahoba. Rajput was seen greeting and embracing Minister Dinesh Khatik, who is considered to be politically opposed to Swatantra Dev Singh, a gesture that drew quiet interest amid ongoing factional murmurs within the ruling party.

The opposition attack intensified later in the day, with Congress leader Aradhana Mishra launching a scathing critique of the Governor’s address. Mishra alleged that the Governor had not read the speech in its entirety and had skipped several portions deliberately.

“The address read by the Governor in the Assembly today was incomplete. She read only selected portions and left out most of it because it was a false narrative written in black ink by the BJP on white paper," Mishra said in a statement. She went on to claim that, as an experienced political figure, the Governor chose not to read what she described as a misleading document. Mishra termed the episode “deeply unfortunate" and “against constitutional traditions."

The government, however, maintained that the Governor’s address and the Finance Minister’s presentation were in line with established practices and reflected the administration’s performance and priorities ahead of the Budget.

News politics UP Budget Session Opens Amid SP Protest As Pallavi Patel Stays Seated

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