Lucknow Mar 28 PTI Veteran BJP MLA Satish Mahana is all set to be the speaker of the 18th legislative assembly of Uttar PradeshThe legislator from the Maharajpur seat in Kanpur district filed his nomination papers for the speakers post on Monday Sources in the assembly said Mahana was the lone candidate to file his nomination The deadline was at 2 pmMahana handed over his nomination papers to the principal secretary of the assembly Pradip Kumar Dubey in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and senior minister Surya Pratap Shahi among othersCongress legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik leader Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya were also presentGovernor Anandiben Patel has fixed March 29 as the date for the election of the speakerMahana was elected as MLA for the eighth time from the Maharajpur assembly seat He was the minister for industrial development in the previous governmentIn the recently held Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections the BJP won 255 seats of the total 403 while its allies Apna Dal Sonelal got 12 and the Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal Nishad got sixMain opposition in Uttar Pradesh the Samajwadi Party won 111 seats while its ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal got eight and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party sixApart from this the Congress won two seats the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik two and the Bahujan Samaj Party one seat PTI SAB IJT

Lucknow Nov 30 PTI Questioning the veracity of official data on COVID-19 deaths and cases Congress Legislature Party leader in Uttar Pradesh Aradhana Mishra Mona on Tuesday demanded that the central government provide the correct number of those who succumbed to the virus and extend financial help of Rs 4 lakh to their families Talking to reporters at the partys state unit office she said her party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi has been running a Covid justice campaign as the government is neither giving the correct figure of those who died due to the coronavirus nor providing compensation to their families She said that every affected family should get a compensation of Rs 4 lakh The government should give the correct figures of Covid-affected people and those who died due to it she said She alleged that due to the negligence of the Narendra Modi government crores of people of the country were infected with the virus and several lakh of them succumbed to it According to government figures over 345 crore people have been infected with the coronavirus in the country and nearly 469 lakh people have lost their lives so far In Uttar Pradesh the number of cases was more than 17 lakh while about 23000 people have lost their lives so far The Congress leader claimed that the actual numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths are estimated to be more than five times the figures shown by the government PTI ABN SMN SMN