The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It has a total of 403 members. Until 1967, the Assembly was composed of 431 members, including one nominated Anglo-Indian member. According to the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission, which is appointed after every census, it was revised to 426. After reorganization of the State on 9 November 2000, the size of the Assembly was decreased to 403 members. The Term of the Vidhan Sabha is five years unless dissolved earlier. The election is held on the principle of "one adult one vote".
History
Pre-independence
The Legislative Assembly for the United Provinces was constituted for the first time on 1 April 1937 in accordance with the Government of India Act, 1935. The strength of the Assembly as stipulated under the Act of 1935 was 228 and its term was five years. Purushottam Das Tandon and Abdul Hakim were elected the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker respectively on 31 July 1937.
Post-independence
After independence, the legislative assembly met for the first time on 3 November 1947. At its meeting on 4 November 1947, the legislative assembly adopted a resolution for the use of Hindi for the transaction of all its business and proceedings and accordingly all the business of the House was thereafter transacted in Hindi. On 25 February 1948, the Assembly passed a resolution requesting the Governor to submit to the Governor General the request of the assembly to the effect that the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad and the Oudh Chief Court be amalgamated. Another important resolution passed by the House on 18 October 1948 congratulated the government of India, the military commanders and the soldiers on their successful police action against the Hyderabad State.
Post-republichood
The first session of the U. P. Legislature under the new Constitution, began on 2 February 1950 with an address by the Governor to both the Houses assembled together in the Assembly Hall. Prior to the commencement of the session, the Governor administered the oath to P. D. Tandon and Chandra Bhal respectively in their respective chambers, thereafter all other members present took oath or made affirmation, as required by the Constitution, in their respective Houses. An important legislative measure passed in 1950 was the U. P. Language Act, 1950, which provided that the language to be used in Bills and Acts shall be Hindi in Devanagri script. In 1951, the U. P. Official Language Act was passed adopting Hindi in Devanagri script as the language to be used for official purpose of the State. On 11 August 1950 the Speaker, Purshottam Das Tandon, resigned from his office. On 21 December 1950 the Deputy Speaker, Nafisul Hasan, was elected the Speaker. Hasan replied to the congratulatory speeches on the occasion, he declared that unlike his predecessor, he would not be taking part in politics as long as he remained the Speaker. Hargovind Pant was elected the Deputy Speaker on 4 January 1951.
After the first elections
The newly elected Assembly of Uttar Pradesh met on 19 May 1952. On 20 May 1952, Atma Ram Govind Kher was elected the Speaker. Govind Kher speaking on the occasion, said that of the two different conventions set by his two predecessors in office in the matter of taking part in politics he would like to follow neither but would strive to follow a middle course in this regard. He said that he would not take part in active politics nor hold any office in the Congress Party to which he belonged, but at the same time he would continue to be a member of that party and take part in non-controversial activities, particularly relating to social and developmental work.
Following are the dates of constitution and dissolution of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. First sitting date and date of completion of term for each Vidhan Sabha can be different from the constitution and dissolution dates.
